An influencer vs. “sex-pest” culture
  April 16, 2026 Hey Meteor friends, Cindi here—coming to you with a short-n-sweet send, kind of a palate cleanser to wash away whatever foul taste is in your mouth after a week that brought us the Alpine divorce, unholy White House delusions, and the unmitigated horror that is the Rape Academy (a story broken by CNN last month but only seeping into our consciousness now). It has not been a week to renew one’s faith in mankind. However! Humankind continues to be awesome, in the face of all this awfulness. When I asked Meteor colleagues what was inspiring them, I heard about astronaut Victor Glover greeting his neighbors, the cast of Born to Bowl, and one truth-telling American in a robe. And here’s one more item to add to that lineup: the fact that the overdue reckoning that came for the creeps of Capitol Hill this week was engineered, in part, by Instagram influencers who heard loud whispers of sexual misconduct against Rep. Eric Swalwell and weren’t willing to just let it go. DC power brokers accused them of being backed by MAGA, or by billionaires, “but it was just us in our group chat!” one of them, Arielle Fodor (aka Mrs. Frazzled), told Brittany Packnett Cunningham on UNDISTRACTED this week.  I won’t spoil your listen—it’s a good one—but Arielle shares how she and her collaborators collected information, took measures to protect the women sharing their stories (including finding them legal support, and even new job offers), and ultimately helped lay the groundwork for robust reporting by the San Francisco Chronicle and CNN, and, quite quickly, Swalwell’s resignation from the California governor’s race and from Congress. The bottom line? As Brittany says, “it’s high time that we understand that whether we like the person or not, Democrat or Republican, doesn’t dictate how accountable they should be. There’s no possible way for a culture of exploitation and extraction to end if we only hold the people accountable that we don’t agree with, whose music we don’t really care for, who we didn’t vote for. It’s on us to hold the bar for every single person.” Enjoy the episode. Enjoy your evening. Enjoy whatever your bright spots are. The Meteor  FOLLOW THE METEOR      Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend?  |
