Applebaum blames the victim for the rape

Yesterday, I just considered Anne Applebaum to have a conflict of interest over Roman Polanski’s arrest in Switzerland. After her response to criticism for failing to disclose her husband’s efforts to get charges dropped against the director, it seems clear that Applebaum has lost whatever sense she formerly had — and that her readers are overwhelmingly repulsed by it. In responding to Patterico, Applebaum scoffs at the notion that the 13-year-old girl had been victimized — because she called her mother before the attack. I’m not kidding:

Of course, there were some very legitimate disagreements, including two excellent ones from my colleagues Gene Robinson and Richard Cohen, and I take some of their points. But to them, and to all who imagine that the original incident at the heart of this story was a straightforward and simple criminal case, I recommend reading the transcript of the victim’s testimony (here in two parts) — including her descriptions of the telephone conversation she had with her mother from Polanski’s house, asking permission to be photographed in Jack Nicholson’s jacuzzi — and not just the salacious bits.

Applebaum wrote two columns defending Polanski. Just about all comments are critical. Anne Applebaum is well educated, going to Yale and European universities. Speaks five languages. Her father is a high powered Washington DC lawyer and her mother is big in the art world. She has two children so a typical poster asks her "How would you feel if your own 13 year old daughter was raped this way?"
But Applebaum is too dense to understand this comparison

You can read her second column and the 200 or so angry responses
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/09/reaction_to_roman_polanski.html

Below is a typical response to her moral idiocy——>>>>>

I wish you could fathom with your arrogance and deceit how many people you have alienated. How many votes you have cost the liberal left. The extent to which you have further polarized the political debate. How much you have single handedly cemented in the minds of many the conclusion that there is a complete lack of moral character within the liberal left.
You, Ms. Applebaum are a real item of work. An intellectual elite in your own mind only. If you are not, you should be running very scared inside. I cannot imagine the liberal establishment defending you at this point. I will speculate that you soon will announce your plans to leave the Post to pursue other interests.
And then again, you could always apologize and accept responsibility for your misjudgments. But you are not capable. You have lost.
Posted by: bradendad | September 30, 2009 9:27 PM | Report abuse

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/michaeldeacon/100011795/roman-polanski-everyone-else-fancies-little-girls-too/

Having blogged about Roman Polanski’s arrest, I reread an extraordinary interview Polanski gave to the novelist Martin Amis in 1979, the year after Polanski went on the run.

The interview originally appeared in Tatler and is collected in Amis’s excellent book Visiting Mrs Nabokov.

Here’s a section of the first quote it contains from Polanski.

“If I had killed somebody, it wouldn’t have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But… f—ing, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to f— young girls. Juries want to f— young girls. Everyone wants to f— young girls!”

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