Arisha Hatch, the interim executive director of the women’s advocacy group UltraViolet, condemned the verdict as “a stain on a criminal justice system that for decades has failed to hold accountable abusers” and called it “an indictment of a culture in which not believing women and victims of sexual assault remains endemic.”
“This is a decisive moment for our justice system, one which threatens to undo the sacrifice of courageous survivors who stepped forward to share their stories in this trial, as well as to all those abused by Diddy who weren’t able to,” said Arisha Hatch, Ultraviolet's interim executive director
A collection of advocacy groups gathered outside Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting Tuesday to protest the company’s advertising relationship with Breitbart, the far-right website.
The groups, including MoveOn, Sleeping Giants and UltraViolet, delivered petitions to Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) with more than one million total signatures, calling on the company to sever ties with Breitbart. Amazon indirectly advertises on Breitbart through third-party ad exchanges.
Ahead of Wednesday’s vote, members of the women’s advocacy group UltraViolet, Action Together New Hampshire, Granite State Progress and Rep. Debra Altschiller held a news conference arguing that Fisher should be expelled. Some dressed as characters from the book and television series, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which imagines a dystopian republic in which women have lost their rights and even their identities.
On Wednesday morning before the vote, members of UltraViolet, a national women’s advocacy organization, joined local activists for a rally outside the State House, urging lawmakers to expel Fisher.
“Robert Fisher is a rape promoter who has no place serving in government,” said Shaunna Thomas, co-founder of UltraViolet, in a statement.
The national women’s organization UltraViolet is trolling President Trump with its “More Popular Than Trump” campaign. The advocacy group has commissioned a digital billboard and Snapchat filter to target Trump’s New Jersey golf club during the president’s weekend visit.
It’s the home of the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open in July and the 2022 PGA Championship, which caused an outcry from several of Trump’s detractors.
Recently the women’s rights group UltraViolet staged a protest at Bedminster, calling for the Open to be moved from the facility, and 109,873 people signed the group’s petition.
“But, as Shaunna Thomas, the co-founder of Ultraviolet, a women’s rights organization that led protests against O’Reilly as recently as this week, pointed out: “It’s worth noting that he’s been a problem—a known sexual predator—for decades.”
Thomas explained that the issue of sexual harassment is now prominent in a way it has not been—ever—in part thanks to the president himself. “Ultraviolet launched in 2012,” she recalled, “and it was hard to even name sexism as a real problem without getting real pushback, even on the left.”
Ultraviolet, a women’s rights group, was one of the leading voices in organizing women across the country to call for O’Reilly’s resignation. The group coordinated a demonstration outside of Fox News studios, and promoted a petition to the network that gained over 480,000 signatures. The group voiced their concerns in an open letter to Fox. An excerpt touches on the national impact of not holding men accountable.
Fox’s complicity in sexual harassment is part of a larger culture that allows for and ignores sexual assault and violence against women. We urge you to choose women’s safety and justice for survivors by getting rid of O’Reilly once and for all.
The group that organized that protest, Ultraviolet, announced Wednesday that it will continue to place pressure on the network.
“Fox News’ problem with sexual harassment and assault is way bigger than just Bill O’Reilly,” said Ultraviolet co-founder Shaunna Thomas. “For years, Fox News executives, like Bill Shine, have provided cover for systematic sexual harassment and abuse of Fox New’s employees. From Roger Ailes to Bill O’Reilly, Fox News has consistently failed to provide a workplace safe from sexual harassment and abuse — and that’s a big problem.”
The women’s rights group Ultraviolet is spearheading a demonstration Tuesday for Fox News to remove one of its hosts, Bill O’Reilly, from the air. The rally follows recent disclosures that the network and the 67-year-old anchor paid millions of dollars to women claiming he had sexually assaulted them during their employment at the conservative news outlet.
“Fox News has a problem with sexual assault – and it’s bigger than just Bill O’Reilly,” said Shaunna Thomas, co-founder of UltraViolet. “For years, Fox News executives have provided cover for Bill O’Reilly’s systematic harassment and abuse of other Fox New’s employees – making it hard to take their promises to investigate such crimes seriously. Fox News needs to prove to the public – and its advertisers – that the era of covering up sexual assault is over. That means – firing Bill O’Reilly immediately and conducting a comprehensive and independent investigation into sexual abuse at the network – firing anyone involved in, or complicit in covering up, those crimes.”