WATCH: Rich Lowry Claims ‘Forced Kissing’ Isn’t Sexual Assault

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

National Review editor Rich Lowry on Sunday argued that “attempted forced kissing” doesn’t count as sexual assault.

During a discussion about the Rolling Stone story on an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia, Lowry suggested that the magazine “had an agenda.”

“Rolling Stone didn’t do basic fact-checking here, I believe because they had an agenda to portray UVA as the bastion of white male privilege, where basically rapists rule the social life,” he said.

CNN’s Van Jones then referenced the statistic that one in five women are sexually assaulted in college.

Lowry shot back that the statistic was “bogus” and complained that the survey used “includes attempted forced kissing as sexual assault.”

The ABC panelists then berated Lowry for his claim.

“It’s not a crime that the police are going to be involved in and prosecute,” he insisted.

Watch the clip via Media Matters:

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. Why is it so often the case that this rich, entitled, (allegedly) heterosexual males who argue against the reality of sexual assault are so often either (a) creepy old men with the general appeal of Jabba the Hutt or (b) creepy young guys who look like they dosed sorority girls with roofies at Dartmouth or Yale or Princeton?

    [hint: rhetorical question: I know all about privilege and entitlement]

  2. If someone forced themselves like that upon his mother, grandmother, sister, daughter, aunt or niece he’d be fine with it. Nice guy.

    STOP PUTTING THESE FUCKING RAPE APOLOGISTS ON TV.

  3. Rich Lowry wrote this about Sarah Palin’s first appearance on the national stage debate appearance (sorry)…

    I'm sure I'm not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, "Hey, I think she just winked at me." And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America. This is a quality that can't be learned; it's either something you have or you don't, and man, she's got it.

    …and with that paragraph enabled the rest of us never to take him seriously again if he lives to 130. He’s a loony.

  4. Well Sarah Palin made this little creep jizz in his pants when he imagined she was winking at him during the GOP convention. Didn’t he feel violated then, or did he enjoy that? Seriously though, what is this bizarre right-wing desire to downplay cases of sexual assault and rape? Limbaugh has been doing it for years, George Will joined the bandwagon a few years ago, and Howard Kurtz has been poo-pooing the recent Bill Cosby accusations, calling it a media circus. Is it all part of their underlying contempt for women? Am I missing some ideological reason for this from the right?

  5. Didn’t watch the clip, but did Rich let everyone know he is a UVA grad, who edited the monthly Virginia Advocate while there?

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

62 more replies

Participants

Avatar for george_c Avatar for anniew Avatar for don Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for sysprog Avatar for mattinpa Avatar for leftflank Avatar for brutus1910 Avatar for meangreen Avatar for texasaggie Avatar for sniffit Avatar for daveyjones64 Avatar for sherlock1 Avatar for punditguy Avatar for jrfunkenstein Avatar for 538liberal Avatar for barblzz Avatar for breccia Avatar for dnl Avatar for hornblower Avatar for thunderclapnewman Avatar for meta Avatar for jviscont1 Avatar for jalus

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: