When jokes tell stories journalists can’t

The first person to technically break the Kevin Spacey sexual misconduct story was a 1-year-old animated boy named Stewie.

In a 2005 episode of Family Guy, Stewie runs through a giant crowd crying, “Help! I’ve escaped from Kevin Spacey’s basement! Help me!” As a diaper-wearing fictional child, Stewie doesn’t have enough credibility to say, publish his story in Buzzfeed like Anthony Rapp did Sunday night, alleging that Spacey sexually assaulted him when he was fourteen. Still, creator Seth MacFarlane’s joke did what journalists either won’t do or simply can’t afford to risk: It whispered an otherwise silent story to the national public. Read more…

More about Watercooler, Kevin Spacey, Seth Macfarlane, Kevin Spacey Sexual Misconduct, and Watercooler