Former WTAE-TV newscaster Wendy Bell is ringing out online about the #MeToo movement and hitting decidedly different notes of reaction.
In an extended post Tuesday night on her Positively Wendy Bell Facebook page she spoke on the movement as both a past victim of sexual harassment and a whistleblower but condemns those who would make false accusations.
“I’ve been watching the #MeToo movement these past six or so months, quietly hoping that any woman who’s chosen to step forward and report sexual misconduct is doing so honestly. After all. Nothing ruins the goodness and potential shift in societal norms quite like liars and insecure bandwagoners looking for their 30 seconds. (Think Duke Lacrosse team.)
“As a student sexually harassed by a professor in college and again at my first job on national television in New York City (blowing the whistle back then got me fired), I know a thing or two about this issue. But as the mother of five sons, I see the flip side. It is more than dangerous. It is destructive. And it is evil.
“We all want to believe that any woman who dares speak up about abuses, past or present, is telling the truth. That she’s been hurt, and that it’s her purpose to get the person who hurt her off the streets. Out of Congress. Off the radio. Or out of his job. But we must be careful. Allegations have consequences.
“By throwing all our eggs in the #MeToo basket, we presume guilt, not innocence. We blindly believe the accusers, grabbing our pitch forks and torches and marching in an angry mob to burn the jerk’s world down. But what if the accuser isn't telling the truth? Then what? And what do those lies do to REAL victims? They water down the impact of a true sufferer's courage when she dares to step out of the shadows.
“It seems we've become so insecure, so desperate for attention, so needy of value or worth, that some of us have stooped to new lows. Ruining someone's life because you want to be relevant (but don't feel like you are) is beyond sad. It's reprehensible.
Online reaction has been overwhelmingly positive on her Facebook page; overwhelmingly negative on Twitter.
I've been watching the #MeToo movement these past six or so months, quietly hoping that any woman who's chosen to step forward and report sexual misconduct is doing so honestly. After all. Nothing ruins the... https://t.co/vgf633pghD
— Wendy Bell (@WendyBellPgh) April 25, 2018
Local blogger Virginia Montanez took Ms. Bell to task on Twitter, first writing, “Wendy Bell’s awful opinions are not worth your time or rage and they are not worth my words. She is in the past. Leave her there to be forgotten.”
Wendy Bell’s awful opinions are not worth your time or rage and they are not worth my words. She is in the past. Leave her there to be forgotten.
— Virginia Montanez (@JanePitt) April 25, 2018
She then followed up by adding this:
I lied. Wendy Bell's post is worth my time for this: In the same post she warns us of #metoo "liars and insecure bandwagoners looking for their 30 seconds," she tells us she was a victim. Why should we believe you, Wendy? Oh, it's not too fun when people don't believe you, is it?
— Virginia Montanez (@JanePitt) April 25, 2018
Ms. Bell, a 21-time Emmy-award-winning journalist found herself in the middle of a media maelstrom in 2016 after comments she made on her public WTAE Facebook page about a mass shooting in Wilkinsburg that left five adults and an unborn child dead were deemed by many as racially insensitive at best and downright offensive at worst.
She was subsequently let go from WTAE after 18 years there. A federal race discrimination lawsuit Ms. Bell filed against WTAE’s owner, Hearst Stations, was settled earlier this year.
Correction, posted April 25, 2018: In an earlier version of this story, the last name of Virginia Montanez was spelled incorrectly.
First Published: April 25, 2018, 5:41 p.m.