How Candace Owens' new series attempting to exonerate Harvey Weinstein relates to this case and points to a larger end game (I think it goes beyond "just" discrediting #MeToo)

Hi all, I wanted to share a recent article from The Hollywood Reporter about Candace Owens' new series attempting to exonerate Harvey Weinstein, with an emphasis on how this may reveal the larger goals of her and other right-wing creators' Lively-Baldoni coverage (beyond just growing their audiences). I know this sub is being careful about amplifying pro-Baldoni narratives and creators -- and I'm certainly not trying to elevate or advertise her new series here -- but I do think it's important to expose what's going on and what the larger end game(s) may be. (These things may seem obvious to users who actively participate in this sub, but having read commentary elsewhere, it's alarming how many people say they generally don't agree with CO but like her Lively-Baldoni coverage and don't see any harm in consuming it.)

Specifically, in the excerpts from the THR article below, I've bolded the sections that I think point to some of CO's larger objectives and desired narratives. Among them:

  • discrediting and undoing #MeToo (duh)
  • undermining trust in the judiciary and the legal process
  • undermining trust in "mainstream media" (including but not limited to journalists and publications whose reporting helped spark #MeToo)
  • promoting the narrative that false accusations of misconduct are used to "steal" men's livelihoods (with these attempts masterminded by other men, since women don't have the wherewithal or agency even to do bad things on their own)

Full THR article here: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/candace-owens-harvey-weinstein-exculpation-series-1236153385/ Content note, in the excerpts below, for discussion of what Weinstein was convicted of, though no details.

Candace Owens, the far-right commentator who in recent months has supersized her online following by zealously defending Justin Baldoni in his It Ends With Us legal battle with Blake Lively, revealed in a Feb. 27 livestream that her next project will be attempting to exonerate Harvey Weinstein in the court of public opinion ahead of his April 15 retrial in New York on rape charges.

She explained she’s been talking with the imprisoned producer by telephone since early 2022, recording interviews since his second conviction in Los Angeles, also for rape and other sexual misconduct. Her takeaway: While he’s “an immoral man,” he’s also a victim of the justice system. Owens, a longtime and persistent critic of the #MeToo movement, of which the Weinstein saga served as the watershed, noted that “I’ve always had faith in our court system and now that’s beginning to change. Now I’m beginning to wonder if our courtrooms have been politicized.”...

...Owens’ own communications representative has circulated a memo underscoring that the series Harvey Speaks, set to debut later this week, will also critique the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism about Weinstein’s misconduct published by The New Yorker's Ronan Farrow and The New York Times’ Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, as well as delve into “how businessmen used #MeToo to try to steal Harvey’s and other men’s businesses.” Owens, who declined to speak with THR about the project, promised on her eponymous show that “it will explode the world.”