The women whom Anthony Weiner made the objects of his salacious texts and conversations have been hounded by the press and media ever since Weiner’s exposure. The consequences have been harsher than they expected.
Gennette Cordova, the 21-year-old college student whom Weiner had communicated with about politics, was the shocked and unprepared recipient of a picture of Weiner’s erection. After Weiner mistakenly posted the picture on Twitter, the media assumed she was a willing participant in sexual banter and went through her old yearbooks and police records, publicizing any indiscretions they could find. She fled from Seattle to New York, but a few weeks ago a reporter came unannounced to her office to ask questions.
Another woman involved with Weiner’s behavior is Lisa Weiss, a blackjack dealer in Las Vegas. She acknowledges that she exchanged explicit messages with Weiner but has been targeted with remarks from customers such as, “Talk dirty to me. We know you like it.” Weiss was a staunch Democrat who volunteered for Bill Clinton’s campaign, and she contacted Weiner after seeing him debate GOP rivals on TV. After they started communicating on Facebook, Weiner suggested starting sexual correspondence.
A former boyfriend threatened to publicize her messages with Weiner, so Weiss decided to go public with them. After the correspondence became public, the press followed her to work and her home; she was missing from work for weeks. Bill Maher on HBO joined with actress Jane Lynch to do a dramatic reading of her messages with Weiner.
Weiss is not innocent in the media crush that followed her; she appeared on “Inside Edition.” However, she did not anticipate the fallout. Hundreds of the messages were posted on the Internet; her 98-year-old grandmother even found out. Weiss said, “How do you explain that to everyone you know who reads that? It was horrible.”
Weiner has played the issue both ways; he has apologized, saying, “I am deeply sorry that my behavior caused so much upheaval in the lives of those who were unwittingly involved,” but he recently joked at a candidate forum, “You know how much I trust Twitter.”