While the world reels in shock over CBS reporter Lara Logan's sexual assault in Egypt, another American journalist is causing a different kind of outrage, calling Logan a "warmonger" who was simply trying to outdo Anderson Cooper.
Nir Rosen, an NYU fellow who has extensively covered the Iraq War, made the insensitive remarks during a Twitter rant on Tuesday. He has since resigned from the university's Center on Law and Security.
"Lara Logan had to outdo Anderson," Rosen tweeted, referring to the CNN correspondent, who was reportedly punched in the head multiple times while covering the recent demonstrations in Egypt.
Rosen went on, insisting it would be humorous if Anderson too had been sexually assaulted.
"Yes yes it's wrong what happened to her. Of course. I don't support that. But it would have been funny if it happened to Anderson too."
From there, his posts only got worse. The tweet, "Jesus Christ, at a moment when she is going to become a martyr and glorified we should at least remember her role as a major war monger," was followed by, "Look, she was probably groped like thousands of other women."
Last week, Logan, a "60 Minutes" correspondent, endured a "brutal and sustained sexual assault by a mob of men while covering the Egyptian uprising," CBS News said on Tuesday. She was eventually saved by a group of women and about 20 Egyptian soldiers, the network reported.
The 39-year-old is now back in the U.S. and recovering. Sources told TMZ that Logan plans on going back to work within weeks, describing her as "unbelievably strong."
Rosen, who has written for a number of prestigious publications, including Time, Harper's, The New Yorker and the New York Times Magazine, later offered a half-hearted apology, after deleting many of his previous posts.
"Ah f--k it, I apologize for being insensitive, its always wrong, that's obvious, but I'm rolling my eyes at all the attention she will get." Shortly after that, he offered half a dozen sincere condolences on Twitter.
"As someone who's devoted his career to defending victims and supporting justice, I'm very ashamed for my insensitive and offensive comments," he wrote, apologizing to Logan's friends and family.
"I am deeply ashamed because they do not represent who i am, and i would like to convey my most heart felt apologies to Ms. Logan, her family, her friends, all women and too everyone I have hurt, angered and disappointed," he added in an e-mail.
Rosen resigned from his fellowship from New York University's Center on Law and Security on Wednesday, according to Karen J. Greenberg, the center's executive director.
"Nir Rosen is always provocative, but he crossed the line with his comments about Lara Logan. I am deeply distressed by what he wrote about Ms. Logan and strongly denounce his comments," Greenberg said in a statement.
Although Rosen has apologized and submitted his resignation, "this in no way compensates for the harm his comments have inflicted. We are all horrified by what happened to Ms. Logan, and our thoughts are with her during this difficult time," she added.
The journalist said he resigned because he has "brought shame to an instiution I respect."
"The plan going forward is to redeem myself and show that my statements were not representative of my beliefs and that i am in fact committed radically to the rights of women, just as I am to justice for any victims of oppressors. My career was dedicated to defending victims from oppressors and instead I now look like I mock victims and justify their oppressors."
No comments:
Post a Comment