Mother Jones’ David Corn Investigated For ‘Sexual and Domineering’ Behavior And Rape Jokes

Another day, another accusation against some asshole in a position of power.

Three years ago, Mother Jones magazine investigated their Washington bureau chief David Corn for sexually harassing female staffers and making rape jokes. Corn is Mother Jones’ most high-profile employee, with regular appearances on MSNBC, a book on the Bush administration and the Iraq war, and an upcoming book on Trump-Russia collusion (which should be interesting considering recent developments that have flipped the script).

The magazine’s CEO and editor told Politico that Corn’s behavior had stopped – however two emails written in 2014 and 2015 and obtained by Politico have embedded corn firmly back in the shit.

Politico writes:

One of the emails, written in 2015 by a former staffer outlining concerns she had heard from other women in the Washington office, said Corn, now 58, made “rape jokes,” “regularly gave [several women] unwelcome shoulder rubs and engaged in uninvited touching of their legs, arms, backs, and waists,” and “made inappropriate comments about women’s sexuality and anatomy.” The other email, from 2014, was by a former female staffer who claimed that Corn “came up behind me and put his hands and arms around my body in a way that felt sexual and domineering.”

In his defense, Corn told Politico “I am an exuberant person and have been known to pat male and female colleagues on the shoulder or slap them on the back, but always in a collegial or celebratory way.”

Mother Jones CEO and editor Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jerffery said they haven’t seen the emails, but will look into them.

“What we heard about in the past were concerns about nonsexual touching (patting on the shoulder, slapping on the back, poking in the arm),” Bauerlein and Jeffery said. “At no time did anyone claim that any kind of sexual touching occurred. In fact, the people who raised concerns about touching told us that they did not consider it sexual, but simply didn’t want any physical contact at all.”

Politico continues:

Bauerlein and Jeffery defended management’s response. “When concerns about the DC bureau were brought up in 2014, we immediately investigated,” they wrote. “Both of us personally interviewed staff in the bureau more than once. We addressed the concerns with David, counseling him and directing him to avoid specific conduct. We followed up to ensure that the situation had improved.”

In addition to touching, Bauerlein and Jeffery said some concerns raised in the past were about “insensitive discussion of difficult issues in the news, including sexual violence, in a way that could have been offensive or triggering to some.” However, they said, “what was described to us did not constitute joking about sexual violence, much less ‘rape jokes.’ ”

The allegation that Corn made “rape jokes” came in the 2015 email that compiled incidents reported to the magazine’s union from women in the Washington office. “Several expressed concern about the ‘gleeful’ tone of these remarks and David’s seeming indifference to the discomfort they created,” it read. “In the summer and fall of 2014, some women staffers reported that they had quit pitching stories involving rape because David’s reactions made them so uncomfortable.”

The woman who outlined her own experiences in the 2014 email claimed Corn put his arms around her from behind “in front of several DC staffers, and I felt humiliated and undermined.” The former staffer also alleged that Corn hovered around some female staffers “in a way that they say feels disturbing and distracting from their work.”

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