The documentary starts with copies of The Cornell Daily Sun being printed on 6 October. The student paper\u2019s editor-in-chief, Sophia Dasser, begins: \u201cYou never know what is going to ignite something in someone else. You never know.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the Netflix instant documentary<\/a>, or \u201cinstadoc\u201d, released on Thursday about the \u201cCornell Seven\u201d<\/a> scandal. It\u2019s entitled Jane Doe v. Cornell and yet, far from at least attempting to give a balanced treatment to this complex story, the 35-minute production makes it clear from the very beginning which side it\u2019s on.<\/p>\n The film hinges on commentary from individuals who essentially all agree with one another about the case: Dasser and Daily Sun senior editor Cereese Qusba, two other Cornell students (one a former fraternity president and the other a sexual assault victim per Title IX proceedings), Doe\u2019s attorney Thomas Giuffra, victims\u2019 advocate Amanda Walsh, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul.<\/p>\n Qusba advertises the Daily Sun\u2019s editorial and financial independence from Cornell University as allowing it \u201cto report completely honestly and be a very open source of information for students\u201d. Yet there are serious questions about the paper\u2019s conduct.<\/p>\n Consider the manner in which the editorial board broke the \u201cCornell Seven\u201d story. On 21 September, the newspaper published an editorial<\/a>, titled \u201cCornell Won\u2019t, We Will\u201d, arguing that \u201cCornell has failed to protect its students. Cornell has failed to address the growing issue of sexual assault on campus with its pathetic task force.\u201d The publication also named the seven men who had allegedly raped Doe, warning them: \u201cWe know who you are.\u201d<\/p>\n One might expect this sort of rhetoric from campus activists or an individual op-ed. But from the editorial board of an Ivy League campus\u2019s main paper, in the process of breaking a story? The Netflix documentary fails to mention this charged language, which was perhaps most responsible for jumpstarting the \u201cI am Jane Doe\u201d posting frenzy<\/a>.<\/p>\n At various points, the production shows montages of individuals questioning the Daily Sun\u2019s narrative on the men\u2019s alleged guilt and the university\u2019s role in facilitating them. Yet the video clips of the likes of Glenn Greenwald and Megyn Kelly are seemingly included to portray these commentators in a negative light, with the latter shown saying that Doe is \u201cprobably thrilled to be so admired\u201d. Kelly has since claimed<\/a> that the film is \u201cdeceptively edited\u201d.<\/p>\n In the documentary, Hochul recounts that her first reaction to hearing about the case was: \u201cHow disgusting. Not again, not again.\u201d Earlier this month, the New York Governor tweeted<\/a> that \u201cchoosing to have a drink is not consent, and it\u2019s never a license for sexual assault.\u201d Yet there is no New York law that says choosing to have a drink is consenting to sex; and as civil-liberties attorney Jenin Younes has pointed out<\/a> in UnHerd, Hochul\u2019s efforts to rewrite state rape legislation \u201cwould put sexual partners in an impossible position and all but guarantee life-ruining allegations of rape against people who do no wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten had initially determined<\/a> that \u201cJane Doe\u2019s statement described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious, and consensual,\u201d but reopened the case on 28 September following the media attention. That was not enough for Hochul, who announced<\/a> that she\u2019d \u201clost faith\u201d in the DA and appointed New York Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor on the case. James had previously affirmed<\/a> Doe\u2019s allegations in a Facebook post, though her and Hochul\u2019s willingness to effectively prejudge the case is not brought up in the Netflix documentary \u2014 or, at least, not as a bad thing.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the appeal to emotion. One Cornell student is shown crying over the fact that the university\u2019s Title IX verdict supposedly didn\u2019t punish her assailant enough, though the details of the assault are not specified. A former fraternity president laments \u201ca lack of accountability and education\u201d in Greek life, and says that \u201cwe all stand with Jane Doe,\u201d while acknowledging that there have been threats made against members of other frats who have done nothing wrong.<\/p>\n Netflix\u2019s Jane Doe v. Cornell finishes with a scene in the Daily Sun offices, as Dasser and Qusba open cards from supporters. \u201cThis is so many different people. They\u2019re, like, all Jane Does.\u201d It\u2019s a fitting conclusion for a documentary whose tone leans more into activism than investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The documentary starts with copies of The Cornell Daily Sun being printed on 6 October. The student paper\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[101905,317198,156,47939,409,111,139,69,34458,76626,24121,8600],"class_list":["post-647313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-cornell","tag-cornell-seven","tag-entertainment","tag-jane-doe","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rape","tag-sexual-assault","tag-uncategorized","tag-universities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}