Her Word against His

OBSERVERS of the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings came away concluding that one of the two—if not both—had lied about whether or not Mr. Thomas had sexually harassed Miss Hill. But no one could be confident that they would ever know who. The absence of documentary evidence turned the hearings into a fascinating but ultimately unsatisfying exercise in speculation on what someone like Miss Hill or Mr. Thomas would or would not have done. Thus the event would be characterized, forevermore, as a case of her word against his.

Yet the truth about whose word was more believable could have been found: it lay in comparing what they said they did with the accounts of other witnesses and various third parties. Clarence Thomas’s testimony was fully corroborated by other parties. At this writing, no aspect of his statement has been challenged, in any way by anyone, before, during, or after the hearings—except in Anita Hill’s own testimony. When her testimony is scrutinized in a similar fashion, at numerous points where her word can be checked against someone else’s or with a written record, her sworn testimony and public statements either conflict with the facts or omit certain incidents entirely.

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David Brock

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OBSERVERS of the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings came away concluding that one of the two—if not both—had lied about whether or not Mr. Thomas had sexually harassed Miss Hill. But no one could be confident that they would ever know who. The absence of documentary evidence turned the hearings into a fascinating but ultimately unsatisfying exercise in speculation on what someone like Miss Hill or Mr. Thomas would or would not have done. Thus the event would be characterized, forevermore, as a case of her word against his.

Yet the truth about whose word was more believable could have been found: it lay in comparing what they said they did with the accounts of other witnesses and various third parties. Clarence Thomas’s testimony was fully corroborated by other parties. At this writing, no aspect of his statement has been challenged, in any way by anyone, before, during, or after the hearings—except in Anita Hill’s own testimony. When her testimony is scrutinized in a similar fashion, at numerous points where her word can be checked against someone else’s or with a written record, her sworn testimony and public statements either conflict with the facts or omit certain incidents entirely.