According to Consequence of Sound, a journalist has made accusations against Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner for allegedly attempting to solicit sexual favors in return for writing deals. Jann Wenner is the founder and publisher of the bi-weekly pop culture magazine Rolling Stone. Journalist Ben Ryan, 39, said he’d been hired by Wenner to write a piece for Men’s Journal in 2005 when the big shot publisher invited him over to his Upper West Side townhouse. Ryan claims Wenner forcibly kissed him on the couch after fixing them both a drink. “I had Jann Wenner’s tongue in my mouth,” he said. “I went along for a second but then said something to the effect of ‘oh please, I’m not that kind of girl.’”
Feeling “grossed out,” Ryan said he made a comment about his psychiatrist predicting an encounter like this one, and Wenner became visibly upset. “It was like the entire temperature of the room changed in a flash,” Ryan said. “[He] was pseudo-threatening of how bad it could be if this got out.” Ryan said he was walking towards to the door when Wenner told him he would get a writing contract if he stayed. “I think there was that moment where it’s like time stood still, and you’re imagining how this could be the answer to all my struggles. All I would have to do is this one thing,” he said. “But that’s not me. I would never do that.”
That same night, Ryan described the encounter in his journal as “the most pure form of sexual harassment.”
Wenner responded to Ryan’s allegations by stating that there was no “quid quo pro” but that they did meet to discuss Ryan’s writing. “I met him twelve years ago and did flirt with him,” he said. “He refused my advances, but still went on to have his assignment from Men’s Journal published.”
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