The Presidential Seal woukd have been a better picture for this story.
Maybe a little, but just a little, off topic: Matt Damon was attacked because he dared suggest that sexual harassment was on a spectrum, that a wolf whistle was not the qualitative equivalent of, say, molesting a woman, or demanding sex quid pro quo, or even rape. To his critics these acts are all equal in severity or in deserving of punishment.
And that is the hallmark of a feeding frenzy: If you defend someone who is accused, or you question the process, that puts you into the “guilty” column.
It is definitely time to establish a process. There is some retribution going on, and many of the accusations sound like score-settling. That idiotic ANONYMOUS accusation that Franken “tried to kiss me but I evaded it” is a perfect example. On its face, that accusation is either trivial, false, or misinterpreted. In the current climate, many seemed to simply accept it, and it was the accusation which led to the Gillibrand-Warren-Klobuchar-Harris hissie-fit.
What I’ve seen 1st hand and gotten 2nd hand is that an accusation is taken at face value.
I fired a guy for sexual harassment in my dept, but I witnessed it and the women confirmed it had been chronic with him.
I had a voice in the firing of two others, but they admitted it, then tried to trivialize it. Officially, all 3 resigned to avoid the stigma of being fired.