Journalists protected the identities of two women who accused Herman Cain of sexual misconduct, until Tuesday when iPad publication The Daily identified one of them as Karen Kraushaar. After The Daily published Kraushaar’s name, Business Insider followed suit, as did The Daily Caller and the New York Post.
NPR has now confirmed with Kraushaar that she was “Woman A,” who alleged that the GOP presidential hopeful sexually harassed her while he was president of the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s. Liz Halloran reports:
Kraushaar, 55, a career federal employee and registered Republican, currently works as a communications director at the U.S. Treasury Department.
Kraushaar’s identity was revealed after another accuser, Sharon Bialek, came forward Monday. Bialek, too, is a Republican who works in communications. Last week, Michael Calderone reported on why news organizations — including the Associated Press, The New York Times, and Politico — were withholding the accusers’ names. All cited privacy concerns. One TV executive was more candid:
“There’s no journalistic reason not to name them,” said the executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “I think it comes down to a very simple equation: If you name them, the likelihood of your news organization interviewing them probably goes down to zero.”
If that’s true, Poynter’s Kelly McBride writes, “those newsrooms are gambling on the remote chance of getting an exclusive, and sacrificing their duty to give their audience all the relevant information.”
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