Is it finally Time’s Up for grifting women’s groups?
8th September 2021
Eva Longoria. Shonda Rhimes. Jurnee Smollett. Ashley Judd.
Those names might sound like the makings of a new Netflix original drama, but they’re actually just a few of the Time’s Up board members who have agreed to resign in the aftermath of the Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexual harassment scandal. Time’s Up, a charity organization founded on the back of the #MeToo movement ostensibly to assist women in fighting sexual harassment in the workplace, wound up in the Cuomo story for all the wrong reasons.
Roberta Kaplan, the organization’s board chair and co-founder of its legal defense fund, resigned last month after the New York attorney general’s report on Cuomo’s behavior found that Kaplan had reviewed a draft op-ed discrediting one of Cuomo’s accusers. CEO Tina Tchen then resigned over claims that she’d provided input on the op-ed and texted colleagues telling them to ‘stand down’ on the Cuomo allegations. Kaplan is currently representing Melissa DeRosa, the Cuomo aide who is accused of playing a major role in the cover-up of alleged harassment in the governor’s office.
Time’s Up will attempt to salvage its reputation, but not because it actually cares about women. The organization has raised tens of millions of dollars in charitable donations, the bulk of which were spent on salaries, swanky conferences, advertising, and lobbyists.