Last night, the world learned that actor Anthony Rapp is accusing Kevin Spacey of making a sexual advance on Rapp when Rapp was only 14 years old. The revelation is one of the more strange and disappointing allegations to emerge in the avalanche of post-Weinstein stories of harassment and sexual assault by men in Hollywood and media. BuzzFeed reported:

In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Rapp is publicly alleging for the first time that in 1986, Spacey befriended Rapp while they both performed on Broadway shows, invited Rapp over to his apartment for a party, and, at the end of the night, picked Rapp up, placed him on his bed, and climbed on top of him, making a sexual advance. According to public records, Spacey was 26. Rapp was 14.

Spacey put out an eye-opening statement of apology, seeming to acknowledge that he had indeed probably done what Rapp accused him of:

pic.twitter.com/X6ybi5atr5

— Kevin Spacey (@KevinSpacey) October 30, 2017

Quite remarkable — especially the line that reads: “But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.” It’s not quite a confession, but the non-denial is striking. After all, most people would be able to deny without reservation trying to have sex with a 14-year-old boy. I don’t know what the statute of limitations is in New York on attempted sexual intercourse with a minor that young, but Spacey’s apparent acknowledgment of Rapp’s allegation could possibly even open him up to prosecution. At a minimum, it is a potentially career-ending admission.

And yet, much of Big Media portrayed the Real Story as being . . . Spacey’s admission that he is gay. No, seriously. One media organization after another ran headlines with variants of the theme: “Kevin Spacey Says He Is Gay.” Some of them changed their headlines after the fact, and others may still, so I will use screenshots to prove my point. Here’s ABC:

And here’s Reuters:

Not to be outdone, here is the New York Daily News:

Here’s Gabriel Malor with a similar screenshot from U.S News and World Report:

.@usnews joins @reuters, @ABC, @thedailybeast in demonstrating poor news judgment as well as being terrible human beings. pic.twitter.com/wRX2pOWPws

— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) October 30, 2017

Um, that’s not the story, guys. It’s not even news. I have assumed Spacey was gay or bisexual for years. I was surprised to read that he hadn’t openly acknowledged it.

But I was a lot more surprised to read that he had allegedly tried to have sex with a 14-year-old.

Come on, Big Media. When America sees you doing stuff like this, right in front of our eyes, we don’t get fooled any more. We just get increasingly disgusted with you, and your transparent efforts to soft-pedal a story on behalf of one of your own.

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