Is This The Truth Or An Insidious Smear Campaign Against An Innocent Man?”

Imagine for a moment that you are the editor of the Chronicle and a reader comes to you with what she thinks is a story. A friend of hers has told her that she was assaulted 36 years ago by a local mayor at a party. This occurs 3 days before voters go to the polls to re-elect the mayor or his opponent. You agree to talk with her friend but the victim insists that her name not be revealed for her family’s sake. Do you continue the interview? Or do you tell her that you cannot publish her story without her name and corroboration by others who were there or know about the incident? She reluctantly agrees and give you names of others she says were at the party. She admits she cannot recall where the party was held or on what year or day it occurred. You ask if she reported the assault to police. She says no, she was too ashamed to do it. You check the names she gave you. None of them recall the party or the incident. You contact the mayor and ask if he recalls what she says he did. He emphtatically denies it. Should you report an unsubstantiated story from a victim who can recall little about the incident and neither does anyone else she says was there? Now, the next day, a woman calls and says the mayor exposed himself to her at a party. She admits she was drunk and did not even recall until recently that the man who exposed himself to her is the mayor. She cannot give you names of anyone who was there and could corrobotate the validity of her story. What do you do now? You already know what the mainstream media decided to do. This is the “evidence” that Judge Brent Kavanuagh is unfit to serve on the Supreme Court. The New Yorker magazine seems to have been happy to report yet admitted no one backed up this woman’s claims. Is there a chance either victim is telling the truth? Or is this an insideous smear campaign against an innocent man? Please let me know what you would have done.

– JerryBellune.com

Is this the truth or an insidious smear campaign against an innocent man?