What Ashton Kutcher got right and wrong on the Danny Masterson character letter.
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- Опубліковано 26 вер 2024
- Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis were among dozens of people who wrote character letters on behalf of Danny Masterson, their friend and co-star from That 70's Show, who was convicted on two counts of rape and sentenced to 30 years to life in prison.
While there is a great deal of justified criticism for Ashton and Mila’s words, there has also been a tremendous amount of character assassination and misleading writing about their letters - and, perhaps most importantly, a complete and total disregard for the purpose of (or a discussion about) character letters and more lenient sentences in the first place.
I want to be clear that this piece is not a work of journalism. It is an opinion piece, coming from me personally, about a perspective that I think should be put down in writing, because it is a perspective I didn’t see anywhere else and one that I think is important.
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This is a great piece, and honestly brave and principled. I appreciated hearing your perspective and am glad you took the risk to share it.
I have been following Tangle as a subscriber for well over a year and truly believe you do a great service to your profession as well as the population in general in attempting to show both sides of the story; albite not with enough emphasis on the underlying reasoning for the distorted reporting and unethical injection of one's personal political beliefs in the reporting of news. I commend you for being honest and forthright in this presentation and openly stating your connection to the players, and great concern for the intent of the letters. Although I prefer for journalists to keep their opinions to themselves, I see this action as one of being a concerned citizen, one who thinks and not just reacts to the horrors of life. I see you more as a human in this piece than as a journalist, and in the last year you have often opened my eyes to the ideals of individuals I tended to blow off because their words struck me wrong at the time. But with time to think, I understood their ideals whether I agreed with their stance or not. Recognizing that we are all humans and very complex social animals is a horrendous feat. You sir, did us all a service by showing us the human behind Tangle when you published this so out of personal journalistic character piece. Thank you, whether I fully agree with you or not, I respect that you actually think about your value and role in life. Much like your piece on prisons, I find this just so thoughtful and honest.
Masterson taunted the victims with the help of Scientology . The judge acknowledged that he showed no remorse . I believe the 30 year sentence minimum is valid to make the victims feel safe . I would not trust Masterson leave the victims alone after release .
Great work, Ike!
Thanks for this hard work, Isaac. I know it wasn't easy for you and I applaud your efforts. You did a lot of explaining about how this video would be different up front and I appreciated that a lot. Also very glad and proud of you for the shout out to the victim's hotline at the end, but a warning for victims would be great at the beginning, too. The direct quotes from the victims could be disturbing to some. I realize that you avoided any description of Masterson's actual crimes, but even the discussion of the aftermath are full of themes that I think some people would find disturbing. Please consider an edit to your video. Thanks for all you do!
Your analysis so well spoken. You’ve just gotten a new subscriber 🎉 Bravo!
My Mother used to say that it is difficult to be a black and white person in a gray world. I think that is even more true when you are looking at differing shades of dark. I stood on a jury of someone convicted of violent rape. It would be tempting to put him and Masterson in the same bucket and same prison, but they are not the same. Masterson is a serial secret rapest who drugged his victims. When he wasn't drugging and raping woman he interacted in the world in a normal and possitive way. ( I know I just triggered people, so bear with). The Atlanta defendant from my trial was also a serial rapist, but it wasn't secret. He used it to terroroize others in his gang.He didn't have a child he took to ball games. He ran a drug gang and hired children to hook their playmates on Oxy. Like Masterson, he violently raped his victims. Unlike Masterson, it was done in public, infront of people, as a warning to the girls' boyfriends, brothers and fathers. Like Masterson, he had people interfere and try to prevent and dissuade the victims and witnesses. Unlike Masterson, he didn't do this by having a corporation apply social pressure, social isolation, and excommunication. He did it by having fellow gang members call the victim, family and witnesses and threaten to kill them. From prison he sent gang memebers to put a knife to the throat of the victim and force her to call and recant her statement. When the police wouldn't accept her recant over the phone, he hired a hit man to kill her. While Masterson pretended to be the good citizen, only being evil when no one looked; the Atlanta defendant bragged about those he sold into sexual slavery. He ran a major drug gang with ties to drug, gun and human trafficing. This defendant was evil in every aspect of his life,. There was no "face of good" that he wore around. I'm not saying that Masterson isn't depraved. I don't think that was what the Kutchers were saying either. They were saying that he wasn't entirely depraved, and there is a difference.
But those facts & circumstances would have come out in court and so a personal reference about someone whose non-raping life is much different is not necessary to separate them from offenders who are violent in other ways. That said references can indeed be most valuable, especially for regular offenders who have personal stories that contrasts with their offence - very much like lots of the victims of your rapist gang leader I imagine.
Did I misunderstand something? Prisons not working is surely a thoroughly mainstream view and not remotely extreme.
As for long sentences, theoretically those are solid points but in this case many other things would need to be in place first - and would need to consider any obvious contrast between sentence duration and the number of years/decades during which a rape victim's experience remains horrific for them.
I thought danny was 24 when the show started.
Good video and work here. Not clear why the deep dive into sentencing stats as opposed to the fact that the crimes occurred during this fabulous relationship with with Ashton (the basis for the character letter to begin with), the role of Scientology which is referenced several times without grounding their role, The crimes themselves, and the ongoing condition of the victims. Lots of time explaining the character letters when clearly Ashton did not know his “friend” putting character letters in general, into question. I do admire your authentic effort to address the topic overall.
I did not realize the crimes were happening during the time Mr. Kushner was claiming he was a perfect friend and an all around great guy. For some reason, I assumed they happened after. Silly of me.
Brilliantly reasoned and explained - I completely agree. The character letters were understandable and an important part of the process. The apology video was unnecessary and scripted to the point where it accomplished nothing if not made it worse. It’s frustrating the inconsistency people have when it comes to topics like the justice system. People don’t hold enough space for nuance and simultaneous truths that feel emotionally conflicting. You’re able to do that so eloquently - I really appreciated this perspective!
Commenting for engagement metrics. Thanks for sharing your opinion in a way that I did not find inflammatory,
I’ve been reading (and listening) to your stuff for a while. This is my favorite piece of yours.
This is a difficult topic. But if we as a society cannot grapple with the difficult stuff, a great many people will suffer. I applaud you "leaning into it" as you say. Thank you for spending the time to comment thoughtfully and respectfully.
I agree with many of the points you made, especially that US prisons do not work. That said,, I do not think the letters and the video were as bad as some, including you, made them out to be. But I am probably in the minority there. I agree they could have done better, and think your point about not stating clearly, specifically, and forcefully that they believe the victims, that he is guilty, and that he deserves at least some time behind bars would probably have been the best way to avoid at least some of the backlash while still supporting their friend.
Thank you again for this work. This is why I am a paying subscriber. Keep it up.
I agree that neither the letter nor the video were that bad. They were writing as his friends and it’s literally a letter of support. They were writing about the friend they knew and probably couldn’t fathom that the man they’d known for 25 years could have done such heinous things. It is not inconceivable that someone could love and support a person who committed such horrible crimes and hope for leniency despite knowing their friend deserves to be punished. Both of those things can be true at the same time.
@@bonnieshores5360 The leniency asked for was to avoid a 9yr growing into an adult with an absent dad. That's a bit more than leniency when you're looking at a 30yr term.
@@anonimushbosh I don’t know the specifics, so my response wasn’t meant to address the details. I was just surprised to see someone say what you said so I thought I’d throw in my two cents. Again, regardless of what DM did (which, of course, was horrific), I think his friends have the right to support him and shouldn’t be publicly excoriated for it. That being said, I’m sad if they advocated for no time.
Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and others get to have their say in their letters to the judge.
Here's what the Jane Does had to say:
'You are pathetic, disturbed and extremely violent and the world is a safer place with you in prison,' said Jane Doe #2, looking straight at the actor, dressed in a gray suit and open-neck gray shirt.
'You are a true coward and heartless monster,' added Jane Doe #1. 'I think life is an appropriate sentence.'
I tried to include a link where these quotes came from but apparently YT does not allow links to day lee male.
Very interesting video as always. I appreciate the thoughtfulness. I agree with most of what you said about the importance of character letters and the futility of long prison sentences. However, I disagree with your assessment of the letters. IMHO almost everything he wrote implied that he didn't believe the victims. I'm about to listen to this for a second time, but I don't remember you addressing my main reason why I think prison sentences this long in cases like this are necessary. There are some extremely dangerous people who we can't trust not to offend again and so they need to be surveilled for the rest of their lives. He was convicted of 2 rapes, but I think there were many women who testified in the trial saying he did the same to them. He spent DECADES raping women, we just cannot trust that he won't again.
Love listening to you. Thank you for this
While in many cases long sentences as the US has them don't make sense if it is about rehabilitation rather than punishment and that's why we in Switzerland (that other country in Europe...not Sweden) don't have them. What we do have though is a careful examination and psychiatric screening to evaluate the risk of reoffending or if a criminal is able to truly change through therapy. If the risk of reoffending is estimated high a convicted criminal can after his time still be held in custody till the end of his life. So while I agree on parts of your reasoning I do think Danny Masterson might pretty well be in this category because the three women who brought their cases to the court where not the only victims and it was reportet him not showing any signs of remorse. Also the letters Kutcher and Kunis wrote where so over the top I wonder how they thought a judge would take them seriously. They sound so more like the praise a narcissists ego would devour than honest descriptions of what kind of a friend he really was, even if they had a truly close and trusting relationship.
What I appreciate about Issac is his ongoing reminders that we can and should hold many and at time conflicting views about complex subjects, to talk about and investigate with others. Somehow many of us forget that in our quest to make a point.
In this I especially appreciated the point that to deter crime, it is more important to increase the likelihood of punishment rather than a long sentence for a few.
Good thought provoking video, and although I agree with much that Isaac had to say, I don't agree with all. My first reaction to this situation was "what does it say about Kutcher and Kunis's character to write letters of support and then apologize for them when confronted". As Isaac indicated, we've become a society where people immediately condemn someone, but look at the facts later. We're also weak kneed about professing values until they cost us personally to defend. Additionally, I never considered the topic of sentencing, it's purpose and deterrent effects. In that regard, I'm interested in the why of criminology. I'd obviously advocate for a longer sentence for a career criminal than a criminal motivated by a temporary situation. My fear, though, with sexual crimes is that the motivation is mental illness rather than personal gain. In that context, I wonder if sexual predators, pedophiles, etc. can ever be safely released and a 30 year sentence, especially for multiple occurrences, is warranted. I'd love for Isaac to delve into the purpose and effectiveness of judicial sentences.
Danny has dirt on him
If anyone I know had drugged and raped multiple woman I wouldn't provide a character letter but thats just me.
The letter (both I assume, though I haven't read Mila's) were utterly tone deaf and that's bad enough but the video was worse because they didn't exactly apologise and Mila especially appeared to resent even having to make it. The absence of professional writers and a good director was way too apparent that's for sure.
I think the oddest thing though was the part about Masterson's kids being without a father. A shorter than 30yr sentence would make no difference to how his kids might be raised... unless of course Kutcher was 'recommending' it be reduced to just a few years or less - after having agreed the verdict was indeed the right one.
Hopefully they won't keep thinking they were both treated harshly because of those letters.
Thanks for your perspective and speaking out on this. I also see the backlash they are receiving as guilt by association.
I could go for shorter sentences if we could expedite trials and sentencing. Too many cases take years to process.
Thank you for this video!
I usually disagree with you at least in part on every newsletter topic you put out, but on this one I actually think I agree with you completely. It is a nuanced topic, but I agree about sentencing, impact letters and the bad apology video.
It makes a lot of sense to pay more attention to apprehending criminals than the length of sentences. But America's justice system has always been based on what is easiest and what the emotional temperature of the population is than on what would actually make a difference, but would take more work and not be as emotionally satisfying.
Anybody else suspect that when Danny protected the woman in the restaurant, it was all for show? Narcissists and abusers often do things like this.
Anybody here believe Masterson is actually guilty after reading into the case? If you do, I have an all feminist made bridge I’d seriously love to sell ya, yes it’s in ruins but hey it’s empowering and that’s all that matters Amirite.
I appreciate you sharing your point of view. It does add some context.