George Will Reacts to Controversy Surrounding Rape Column

Columnist George Will, during an appearance on C-SPAN today, responded to the national uproar over his column about sexual assault that earned him condemnation from U.S. senators and got his column pulled by a major newspaper. In the column, Will disputed statistics the White House has put out about sexual assault on college campuses and said that being a rape victim is a “coveted status” on campuses that confers certain “privileges.”

Will stood by every word he wrote. He said, “This is my job, when dubious statistics become the basis of dubious and dangerous abandonment of due process, to step in and say ‘Take a deep breath, everybody.'”

He argued that the way sexual assault is treated on campus comes with the the “abandonment of the rules of due process,” and so men can have their lives ruined with public accusations of rape. And to critics who’ve accused him of being uncaring about rape, Will said that he just doesn’t want rape to be trivialized by defining it so broadly.

Will also lamented how the internet has given rise to people who “don’t have to be able to read, write, or think” to voice their fury at people like him.

Watch the full video below, via C-SPAN:

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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