“A lot of people were unhappy with the fact we covered the story"

“And then the third category, which I got a lot of, that was the most disquieting to me,” Hayes said. “A whole lot of people pointing to various aspects of Reade’s character or her writings or her politics as a kind of proof that she’s not credible, she’s making it up. ‘Oh, she didn’t report this sooner,’ or ‘She said nice things about Joe Biden, her former boss, at one point, so how could he have assaulted her?’ or ‘She supported Bernie Sanders, so clearly this was just a political hit job,’ or ‘She said things people find strange on social media,’ much of it adding up to: you can’t trust this woman.”

“These are the things that have been used forever against women making these types of allegations,” Hayes pointed out, before lowering the boom against all the bad faith arguments being looked at Reade — and, indirectly, himself. “To me, the lesson of the MeToo movement is not that you believe every allegation. Of course not, no. The lesson is to take allegations seriously, to swiftly investigate the facts surrounding them as best as one can, while leaving aside the worst, age-old instincts to drag the women who make those claims through the mud.”