Media outlets refuse to take my reports of online harassment seriously

They've chosen the misogynist.

(Photo by Jens Kalaene/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Yesterday, I had the privilege of speaking with young journalists who are part of a new “women in media” club at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. (Men are in the club too. Ally it up, allies!) The topic of the hour was how to be a journalist on social media — and survive the threats and sexual and other harassment that come with that.

Honestly, when I was asked what advice I could give the students on how to balance sharing opinions on social media with what media outlets expect from you, I had to laugh and say, “Why are you asking me? Clearly I have no idea what I’m doing.” But actually, that’s not true. I’ve learned a lot recently about what news organizations do and do not (or will and will not) expect. I told the students that if they had any inkling that they might want to work in straight news, they should stop posting their opinions immediately, especially on politics. 

In terms of the other component of the talk, living with constant hate and harassment as a female journalist — there’s really not much any of us can do about it. It’s just a fact of life for myself and many of my colleagues. Our outlets expect us to have a social media presence, and between that and having a public byline, the crap piles on. And on.

It’s not that we accept it. Not at all. My women journalist friends and I convene all the time to vent. But my MO has always been to just block a troll and report him to the social media company. (That has usually not been particularly effective, unfortunately.)

A few days before my talk at CUNY, however, instead of simply blocking a troll as usual, I did something I’d never done before.

I went on Twitter and named and shamed the man, a German journalist named Friedemann Diederichs.

On Sunday, Diederichs popped up on my Facebook, which I restrict to only people I know (although strangers can still send message requests, which is useful for reporting). His very elegant message was “Wazzup, beetch?” Which led to the discovery that he’d already sent me a handful of disgusting messages about a month ago. I was receiving so many at the time — hundreds, from every direction — that his had been lost in the crowd.

The first couple messages Diederiches sent me.

I had no memory of this guy. But learning that he was a journalist, too, and felt it was okay to invade my world out of the blue, made me absolutely furious.

Diederichs writes for a number of reputable German newspapers, and I wanted to tell each of them about the person they are employing. Fortunately, there is also a very kind world on Twitter. A dozen or so Germans said that they would contact the newspapers themselves.

In a few days, one of those kind Germans wrote to tell me that one paper had told her that they were taking the matter seriously. That they were “investigating” — whatever that means, as nobody from the outlet has contacted me.

But yesterday evening, another helpful German reached out to tell me something incredibly disturbing: This person knew firsthand that the editors of another of the newspapers Diederichs writes for knows what he did, but want to employ him still. And it gets worse. They have decided he has an excuse for what he said to me: He is dealing with difficult family circumstances.

Apparently, men who are suffering are entitled to take that out on women.

The confluence of hearing this just hours after speaking to student journalists makes me sad. Sad that those students will soon be facing this stuff, if they’re not already. But I’m also angry on behalf of all women journalists.

Members of my own profession, the one I love passionately, have chosen the misogynist creep.

They’ve decided that they’re okay with publishing the work of a man who sexually harasses women. That decision is not harmless.

The U.K.-based think tank Demos said that female journalists get roughly three times as much abuse as their male counterparts. Anecdotally, every female journalist I know on the Internet receives some amount of abuse, and a number of them have left the profession over the years, sick of it.

Sejal Parmar, an expert in international human rights law, wrote in a 2016 report from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe that “these attacks have severe effects, including in terms of their psychological impact upon the female journalists who are targeted and also in terms of their silencing or ‘chilling effects’ on their fellow female journalists and other women wishing to express themselves online.” 

Not only that, but if a media outlet is okay with its employees sending harassing messages on Facebook, is it really such a stretch to say that it will also be okay with those employees saying gross things to colleagues, or acting inappropriately?

“These attacks deserve to be taken as seriously as physical attacks against journalists and gender-based violence by relevant actors — states, intermediaries and social media companies, media organizations and also intergovernmental organizations,” wrote Parmar.

As a profession, at least at many outlets, journalism has seen sexual harassment brought into the light recently. #MeToo did its job, sort of. Clearly, the message has not been fully digested. As for the newspapers that knowingly condone terrible behavior, I’ve got plans cooking, and I’ll update you with what comes to fruition.

Hang in there, CUNY students, and all lady journalists. We’re just going to have keep pushing our industry to be better, and we will.