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Bad Timing: The Washingtonian and DSK

Talk about bad timing in the magazine business. This one takes the cake.

 

The June issue of Washingtonian prominently features a lengthy feature by a well-known French journalist on Georgetown’s ‘invisible man’ who hobnobs with world leaders including President Obama and who might, just might, become “the next president of France.”

You guessed it. It’s the now-notorious DSK…Dominique Strauss- Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, who at the precise time Washingtonian magazine was rolling off the presses happened to be cooling his heels at Rikers Island on ‘suicide watch’ after rape allegations against him at a $3,000 a night hotel suite in midtown Manhattan.

Oh how quickly the high and mighty can fall. And how fast what once appeared to be a promising and insightful feature story can turn into yesterday’s news to be taken out with the garbage.

The gushing piece, written by Apolline de Malherbe who now lives in Georgetown, is easy to ridicule in retrospect. But really who knew the real DSK? Certainly not his Georgetown neighbors, international jet-setters nor the fawning ‘journalists’ covering the IMF.

But there were many previous hints. And the harassing environment for women who work at the IMF has been the topic of insider gossip in the nation’s capital for at least the past 20 years, maybe longer.

The Washingtonian article even does a side-by-side comparison on DSK’s glamorous dual lives here in Georgetown and in Paris.

“A Tale of Two Cities:

In Paris: He’s known as the leading candidate to unseat President Nicolas Sarkozy.

In Washington: He’s known as a powerful relatively anonymous bureaucrat.”  (Well, not anymore.)

In Paris: His wife is known as the most famous TV journalist of the last 30 years.

In Washington: His wife is a housewife who blogs.

His home (in Paris) : an apartment in the trendy Marais neighborhood.

His home (in DC) a $4-million house next to Rock Creek Park in Georgetown.

In Paris: His romantic exploits: quietly whispered about.

In Washington: His romantic exploits: covered on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.”

Well, you get the drift.                  

To add insult to injury, the largest headline on the story misspells DSK’s last name calling him Strauss-Khan instead of Strauss-Kahn.

Fortunately, perhaps, this journalistic gem has just been posted online, according to Washingtonian editor Garrett M. Graff, just back from a trip to Europe.  You can find it at this link according to Graff: http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/19460.html

That’s a tad unusual because the magazine routinely serves up stories to its premier list of home subscribers weeks ahead of posting those same stories on its website.  In any event, the new June issue of the magazine is available at most local newsstands as well. For a mere $3.95 it could be a collector’s item someday. Who knows?

The magazine’s website also contains some interesting tweets about the adventures of DSK.

As Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson put it the other day: “I didn’t think this is how socialists were supposed to roll.”

Related Topics: DSK, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and IMF
What do you think about the allegations raised again the former IMF chief and the recent focus on the climate at the institution for women? Tell us in the comments.

morris wise

2:03 pm on Monday, May 23, 2011

The unproven charges against DSK brings back memories of the time when a Captain Dreyfus was wrongfully convicted of treason, both were French Jews and both were serving their country honorably. After two years in Devils Island Captain Dreyfus was freed when evidence of his innocence appeared. Unsupported accusations must be suspect and not be allowed to destroy careers. The accused should have the benefit of a full investigation and jury trial before their reputation and freedom is taken away. Those found guilty of filing a false police report must be dealt with harshly.

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robespierre

8:01 pm on Monday, May 23, 2011

I fully agree with the Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson when he say: “I didn’t think this is how socialists were supposed to roll.”
That's why I strongly thanks United States to have avoided France the threat of having such a limousine democrat as president ! By the way, could you help us to get rif of Sarkozy too, now ? He's turning our country to a rotten kind of racist dictature that hurts french citizen's love for liberty, equality, and friendship.

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