Breaking: NYRB Launches Jian Ghomeshi #MeToo Apology Tour

By Study Hall staff writer Allegra Hobbs (@allegraehobbs)

It’s been a great week for creeps and abusers looking to rehabilitate their image in the pages of respected literary institutions, which is apparently a whole genre of first-person essay that (a) exists and (b) is very hot right now. First, former WNYC host and harasser John Hockenberry penned a “poor me” piece in Harper’s lamenting how sad he’s been after everyone found out he made his workplace a nightmare for female colleagues (he’s just a romantic, he argues). His accusers slammed the glorified pity party and further noted they had not been contacted by Hockenberry despite his claims of “heartfelt” inquiries.

Now, in a bizarre case of serendipitous timing that makes me want to vomit, the New York Review of Books is preparing to publish a similar piece on Monday from Jian Ghomeshi, the former Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio host who between 2014 and 2016 faced multiple charges of violent sexual assault from six separate accusers.

According to a source who has seen a draft of the piece, which is slated to be featured on the cover, the essay is similar to the Hockenberry piece in that Ghomeshi is given undue column inches to navel-gaze about how the experience has impacted him personally.

“It’s this weird apology that I think is trying to be earnestly contrite,” said the source. “I think it’s this idea of showing someone who has been a quote-unquote victim of [#MeToo] and then has learned a lot.”

Ghomeshi was acquitted of all but one of the criminal charges because the accusers had reportedly not disclosed subsequent encounters with Ghomeshi. The remaining charge was dropped when Ghomeshi signed a peace bond and issued an apology to the accuser. Ghomeshi touts the acquittal in the piece, said the source, and disputes the accounts of accusers, but he doesn’t thoroughly deny accusations and issues a pseudo-apology.

Like Hockenberry, he also laments being treated differently after the accusations, said the source.

“He sort of owns up halfway, then he’s like, ‘I was acquitted,’ then he talks about his struggles being out in public, how he was super depressed after, and how his friends stopped talking to him,” said the source.

At least some staff at the magazine are appalled by the piece, said the source, but the “top-down” editorial structure seems to prevent any real resistance to the wishes of the higher-ups. Editor Ian Buruma, who replaced the late Robert Silvers in May of last year, seems deeply involved in the process, noted the source.

Nicole Cliffe, beloved fairy godmother of media workers who took Harper’s to task over Katie Roiphe’s March Shitty Media Men list piece, caught wind of the Ghomeshi piece and blasted it in a Twitter thread, calling the piece “Ian Buruma’s baby.” (With funding volunteered by Cliffe, several freelance writers pulled pieces from Harper’s over Roiphe’s piece.)

The New York Review of Books did not immediately return a request for comment. We’ll post an update if they provide some defense of facilitating an accused assailant’s apology tour. I have no doubt the publication will point to Ghomeshi’s acquittal, as though the burden of proof for a prison sentence should be identical to that meriting the severance of professional ties, or just declining to publish a totally unnecessary essay.

UPDATE: The piece is now online at NYRB here. The unfortunate cover tagline is “THE FALL OF MEN.” A PDF version of the article has been sent to the Study Hall Listserv.