The verdict is in. It was not a surprise.
R&B singer R. Kelly was found guilty of racketeering and eight violations of an anti-sex trafficking law by a federal jury in Brooklyn. Kelly, 54, faces the possibility of decades in prison.
The Associated Press’ Tom Hays wrote, “The charges were based on an argument that the entourage of managers and aides who helped the singer meet girls — and keep them obedient and quiet — amounted to a criminal enterprise. Several accusers testified in lurid detail during the trial, alleging that Kelly subjected them to perverse and sadistic whims when they were underage.”
Did media coverage, specifically the docuseries about Kelly that came out two years ago, lead to Monday’s verdict?
When Monday’s verdict came down, I immediately thought of a piece that Eric Deggans, the TV critic for NPR, wrote last month. Deggans wrote, “As the trial of disgraced R&B superstar R. Kelly unfolds, it’s tough to imagine reaching this moment without the 2019 Lifetime docuseries ‘Surviving R. Kelly.’ That’s because the six-part project seemed to transform public opinion about the singer in an instant, with detailed, harrowing accounts from women who said Kelly spent decades pursuing underage girls for sex and maintaining abusive relationships.”
Deggans also wrote, “The public reaction — including prosecutors asking other potential victims to come forward and his longtime label, RCA, dissolving its working relationship with him — was surprising because journalists had been reporting on similar allegations against the singer since the late 1990s. But cultural critic and filmmaker dream hampton, an executive producer on ‘Surviving R. Kelly,’ says this project hit the world in a crucial moment: Social media spread word quickly, a younger generation was less tolerant, and viewers were drawn in by the power of seeing a succession of survivors telling their stories directly to the camera.”
Back when the “Surviving R. Kelly” docuseries came out in 2019, Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan wrote, “Woman after woman faced the camera to tell her harrowing story. And suddenly, the walls surrounding the superstar began to tumble down, as a nation of disgusted viewers turned on him, using the hashtag #MuteRKelly — which had originated in 2017 but now found a whole new life.”
Now we will see what kind of impact this verdict has. For instance, Ben Sisario, who covers the music industry for The New York Times, writes, “R. Kelly’s trial could become music’s #MeToo moment.”
Sisario writes, “The music business has indeed had its share of scandals in recent years. The singers Marilyn Manson and Ryan Adams, and the hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, have been accused of various kinds of misconduct. But the criminal trial of R. Kelly, which ended with his conviction on Monday, has been by far the most high profile #MeToo moment in music.”
And it could lead to other reckonings for those in the music industry who mistreated, harassed and assaulted others.
Tweet and respond
Here’s a Twitter-media dustup.
Last week, conservative radio host and troll Clay Travis tweeted out a Fox News graphic and called it an “amazing statistic.” The graphic said 302 children have been shot in Chicago this year, while 214 American children (ages 17 and younger) have died from COVID-19.
ESPN’s Sage Steele responded by tweeting, “KIDS. SHOT.
The sick trend continues as it has for YEARS in Chicago. Funny how no one talks about it publicly..much less does anything about it. But yes -- let’s keep masking up our children! SMH. Once again, when facts don’t fit the narrative.........”
Deadspin’s Jesse Spector wrote that, yes, it’s horrible children are being shot. But Spector added, “‘Chicago’ is the go-to for right-wingers to dismiss the idea of doing anything about gun violence anywhere else. It’s absolutely talked about publicly, all the time.”
Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones had an even better response to Steele, tweeting, “No one talks about it publicly and yet you learned about it from a news report. And what are YOU ‘doing about it’? And why are you performatively using the shooting of children to spread your anti-mask nonsense? Last: learn to read a stat. This isn’t comparing deaths to deaths.”
Besides, as Spector points out, “… really, 214 dead children is a huge reason for children to be wearing masks. How much higher would the number be if they didn’t? How many of those children got COVID-19 because of lax hygiene by people like Travis and Steele who deny medical science?”
Spector summed up his thoughts with this passage: “What kind of idiot, in the year 2021, sees a Clay Travis tweet, and thinks to themselves that rather than Fox’s resident sportbro spouting off false equivalencies or flat-out misleading people, he’s really making a great point? ESPN’s Sage Steele is that kind of idiot.”
Making history
