Why ‘A Father-Son Talking-To’ Is So Troubling
“It’s the phrasing here—“a father-son talking-to”—that’s especially striking. Given Oreskes’s age (63) and the time period of the allegations in question, Oreskes would have been in his 40s when he took part in such a ritualistic coming-of-age conversation. What the anonymous editor is describing is the stuff of the after-school special, ported to a professional environment: a talk that would seem, given the circumstances, at once overly intimate and also, in retrospect, ineffective. A talk that prioritizes the happiness of one family member over the interests of the institution and the good of the professional collective. A talk that smacks of Michael Scott.
“A father-son talking-to” is extremely familiar, though, as an idea—in the workplace, and far beyond. It suggests male exceptionalism: the logic of boys being boys, of locker-room talk, of perpetual adolescence that feels no need to make an apology for itself.”
Before NPR’s Michael Oreskes resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct, his former colleagues offered insight into the male-driven version of the whisper network.
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