Saturday, November 23, 2002

This "lady" protests too much

It seems that Rachel Marsden is in the news again. In 1997, she was found to have falsely accused her former swim coach at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby B.C. of sexual harrassment. Now, she has just been charged with criminal harrassment of a former Vancouver radio host.

In yesterday's Province, she protested to columnist Jon Ferry that she wanted to get her SFU misdeeds behind her in an attempt to branch out into column-writing and journalism. Miss Marsden, 28, protested: "It's really unfortunate that the provincially minded local media insist on constantly bringing it up and tying it in whenever I'm mentioned . . . No one else in the media anywhere else in the world gives a hoot about any of that . . . all they care about are my journalistic abilities and my
contributions to political debate."

Oh really? I've had a browse around the Internet and here's what I found.

Yes, she is published on the net, at GOPUSA.com, for example. However, she has also been named a Republican Babe of the Week by members of the New Jersey Republican Party. The website reveals Miss Marsden in photos from her very own website in clothing that flaunts her body, not her mind. Her response:
"I truly am honored. Thank you! I also took a surf through your site, and think it's great. Very fun and catchy, yet informative." - Rachel. Other "Republican Babes of the Week" include women who are known for their extensive knowledge of political issues...and Bo Derek, Shannen Doherty and Kim Alexis.
I doubt these Republicans would have included a Barbara Bush, for example, on their tribute site. But Miss Marsden was tickled to get this publicity not fully related to her skills as a columnist.

Her own site, rachelmarsden.com, is swamped by 'net traffic. However, thanks to that awesome 'net research tool, the Internet Archive, I got a peek at her website as it was presented to the world on July 21, 2001. Lots of come-hither pictures, and information on how you could call her agents for modelling and acting assignments.

In her recent columns she is trying to be very conservative. Her conversion to the cause, however, may only be recent. The July 21, 2001 version's front page features those photos which compare George W. Bush's facial expressions to those of a monkey in "Separated At Birth?" format.