What's Marv Albert's Real Crime?/WW id PAA24337; Sat, 4 Oct 1997 15:00:29 -0400 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the October 9, 1997 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- WHAT'S MARV ALBERT'S REAL CRIME? By Leslie Feinberg "Case too pathetic to be funny anymore" was the Sept. 25 New York Post headline. It referred to former sportscaster Marv Albert, who pleaded guilty that same day to a misdemeanor charge of assault and battery. Albert was accused of biting and raping a woman in Arlington, Va., on Feb. 12. She was treated at a local hospital for some 18 bite wounds on her back. Funny? That's not funny. The Post happens to be such a reactionary rag its coverage is usually in synch with the Elvis-Presley-sighted-on-UFO tabloids. But in the case of Marv Albert, the rest of the big-business media appeared to be competing with the Post's gutter journalism. Long before his trial began, newscasters, talk-show hosts and the new breed of made-for-television legal commentators had already indicted and convicted the woman who filed charges against Albert. Her sexuality, past relationships, emotional stability and motives for coming forward were impugned and joked about in print and sound bites. This public humiliation and lurid guffawing at a woman who charged she was the victim of rape and assault certainly sends a message to other rape victims not to come forward. "Poor Marv," his good-ole-boy news industry peers sympathized, as though he were the victim. Then, on Sept. 24, a second woman came forward to testify in this case. She reported that Albert had bitten and tried to rape her on two occasions. During the second attack, she testified, he was wearing women's underwear and a garter belt. The media blitz that followed is very telling. Did reporters, newscasters and television comedians do a turnabout and take the accounts of Albert's attacks on women seriously? No. They bellowed in unison, "He was wearing what?" A third witness was about to be called by the prosecution when Albert suddenly agreed to accept an original offer and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. His lawyer, Roy E. Black, had won the acquittal of William Kennedy Smith on rape charges. But this case was more than even he could turn around. NBC fired Albert as a sportscaster and he resigned from the MSG network. Then Albert's media peers turned on him. The transphobic witticisms, jokes and cartoons churned out in the media are not fit to print. But in their totality they make clear that Albert's real crime is not assault, battery and rape--it's his cross-dressing. And there are plenty of sub-texts as well. "Oh, he's a cross-dresser--that explains it!" Explains what? Albert's violence against women? There could well be millions of cross-dressers in this country alone. Many secretly dress in women's underwear and a garter belt a couple of times a year in a motel room far from home. If they are outed or arrested while cross- dressed, it is they who are vulnerable to rape and assault. This media coverage is meant to shame every person who battles sex and gender oppression. First women and other victims of rape. Now, the humiliation is directed at cross- dressing males of all sexualities. Woman-hating and transgender bashing are closely linked in a male- supremacist, divide-and-conquer system. And in the process, Albert's real crime gets forgotten. Aren't rape and assault the real problem, not the sexuality of the aggressor? Would Albert's actions have been any less reprehensible if he were wearing jockey shorts? Reporters are already placing bets in print on how long it will be before Albert returns to sportscasting. Walter Goodman concluded in the Sept. 29 New York Times: "What do his methods of expressing affection or finding satisfaction have to do with narrating a Knicks game? As long as sports remains a big profit center for so many channels and so many companies, Mr. Albert should prove marketable soon again." - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@workers.org. For subscription info send message to: info@workers.org. Web: http://workers.org) ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytsxp-10.04.97-15:00:23-6852