Al Gore, Keith Olbermann & Markos Moulitsas Must Retract, Apologize For Occupy Rape Cover-Up

We call on Current TV founders Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, Countdown host Keith Olbermann and DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas to issue an immediate written and on-air retraction and apology for broadcasting a statement by Moulitsas that called the subject of rape and sexual assaults in the Occupy movement “made up” during the February 13 broadcast of Countdown.

Host Keith Olbermann and Current TV not only provided Moulitsas with a platform to spread this patently false statement, but did nothing to correct the misinformation given to the show’s tens of thousands of viewers.

Mr. Moulitsas’s statement and its tacit support by Olbermann, Gore and Hyatt is a slap in the face to both Current TV viewers and the dozens of men, women and children who have been the victims of sexual assault at Occupy encampments or events. The conduct of Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Moulitsas as presented by former VP Gore and Mr. Hyatt is part of a disturbing pattern of covering up rape and sexual assault in the Occupy movement.

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In an exchange with Mr. Olbermann, Mr. Moulitsas said:

“This movement has gone far beyond the actual protests themselves. The message itself has taken on its own meaning.  It’s sort of kind of almost broken free from the Occupy protests, so they can be as filthy and they can rape people — if you want to make stuff up –but the fact is nobody really cares about it because that message isn’t about the messenger, it’s not about who’s delivering a message, but it’s about the message itself which really resonates at a very core emotional level with people who are suffering in this economy.”

The following is a small sample of various news reports about rape and other sexual crimes during just a one-month period of the Occupy movement. These reports come from both local and national news outlets incite crimes that happened in a variety of cities.

Rapes & Various Sexual Crimes – 10/16 – 11/19 2011

• Madison, WI: 10-27-2011 — Madison Occupiers Lose Permit Due to Public Masturbation
• Cleveland: 10/18/2011 — ‘Occupy Cleveland’ Protester Alleges She Was Raped
• Seattle: 10/18/2011 — Man Accused of Exposing Self to Children Arrested
• Cleveland: 10/29/2011 — Rape Reported at Occupy Cleveland
• Dallas: 10/24/2011 — Police Investigating Possible Sexual Assault Of Teen At Occupy Dallas
• Portland: 10/16/2011 — Sex Offender Registers Occupy Portland Camp as Address
• Lawrence, KS: 10/25/2011 — Sexual Assault Reported at Occupy Camp
• Glasgow: 10/26/2011 — Woman Gang-Raped
• Manchester, NH: 10/28/2011 — Woman charged with pimping teen recruited at Occupy NH rally
• NY: 10/30/2011 — Woman Assaulted in Her tent
• NYC: 11/3/2011 — Occupier Busted In Tent Grope, Suspected In Rape
• Chula Vista, CA: 11/6/2011 — Underage Girl Missing From Occupy Protests
• Philadelphia, PA: 11/13/2011 — Occupier Arrested for Rape
• Austin, TX: 11/15/2011 — Occupier Accused of Masturbating in Front of 16 Year-old Girl
• Chicago, IL: 11/16/2011 — Occupier Arrested for Child Porn
• St. Louis, MO: 11/18/2011 — Woman Sexually Assaulted
• NYC: 11/19/2011 — Occupier Arrested for Forcibly Touching Woman

It’s difficult to put a number on the exact number of rapes and other sexual crimes connected with the Occupy movement because there’s been a deliberate pattern of cover-up and deception by both the assailants themselves and Occupy leadership in various cities. The flat denial of rape and sexual assault as “made up” by Mr. Moulitsas continues this trend.

Here’s a short list of stories about attempts from a number of cities to cover up rapes during a two-week period in 2011.

Rape Cover Up – 10/ 18 – 10/31 2011

• New York: 10/25/2011 — Three Men Threatened to Kill 24-Year-Old Occupy Wall Street Protester for Reporting Rape
• Baltimore: 10/18/2011 — #OccupyBaltimore Discourages Sexual Assault Victims from Contacting Police
• Boston: 10/20/2011 — Occupy Boston Doesn’t Want Police Involved in Rape
• NY: 10/10/2011 — Sex, Drugs and Hiding from the Law at Wall Street Protests
• Ottawa: 10/31/2011 — #OccupyOttawa Violent & Sexual Assaults Not Reported to Police
• Portland, OR: 10/27/2011 — Sexual Assault: ‘nobody should contact the police’ — Video

It seems inconceivable that the sheer number of stories about rape and sexual assaults directly connected to Occupy  somehow all escaped the attention of either Mr. Olbermann or Mr. Moulitsas. Their dismissal of these disturbing crimes and their cavalier, joking attitude towards the subject is sickening and the idea that Al Gore, the former Vice President of the United States, would allow Olbermann and Moulitsas to lie to Current TV viewers is unconscionable.

There is a possibility that Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt, like hundreds of millions of other Americans, simply weren’t watching Countdown and missed this journalistic atrocity. If that’s the case, we call on Hyatt and Gore to take swift action and set the record straight on the Occupy movement’s appalling history of sexual assaults.