“I want to put it in perspective because I think about all the many African-American men who are in prisons right now for crimes they didn’t commit, and for actual victims of sexual assault that it has done the greatest disservice to.They say one out of four women will experience sexual assault in their lifetime. That’s staggering and fucking horrible.”
That’s Conor Oberst talking about Joanie Faircloth’s claim. This is Joanie’s retraction: ““The statements I made and repeated online and elsewhere over the past six months accusing Conor Oberst of raping me are 100% false. I made up those lies about him to get attention while I was going through a difficult period in my life and trying to cope with my son’s illness. I publicly retract my statements about Conor Oberst, and sincerely apologize to him, his family, and his fans for writing such awful things about him. I realize that my actions were wrong and could undermine the claims of actual sexual assault victims and for that I also apologize.”
There is a part of me that feels sorry for her, it is a bit like the Brian Williams story, the need to make yourelf more than you are, or different, maybe worse than you are, to enlist sympathy or admiration. I think maybe just to make yourself interesting.
What she did was terrible, especially to Conor, she singlehandedly blew his last album to smitherines: you can’t be a sensitive songwriter and a rapist: it is one of those either or situations. But still, it is just a horrible, pathetic and sad story.