Strap in, folks, this story has a few layers. Which is why we’re even writing about it in the first place.
It all started, for most of the world, with this New York Times story Tuesday morning, about the mayor of Anchorage, Ethan Berkowitz, abruptly resigning from his office. The reason, Berkowitz said through a spokesman at the time, was his “unacceptable personal conduct.” Conduct which the Times went on to explain involved an “inappropriate texting relationship” with local news anchor Maria Athens.
Mr. Berkowitz’s resignation followed an unsubstantiated claim posted to social media on Friday by the news anchor, Maria Athens, promising viewers an “exclusive” story set to air on upcoming newscasts. Mr. Berkowitz responded by calling the allegations “slanderous” and false, and Ms. Athens shot back by posting what she said was an image of the mayor’s bare backside, with a laughing emoji.
But as political leaders in Anchorage lined up to defend Mr. Berkowitz, the mayor came forward on Monday with an admission: He and Ms. Athens had previously engaged in a “consensual, inappropriate messaging relationship.”
The claim (false, it’s important to note) was that Berkowitz “has his male genitalia posted on an underage girl’s website,” and Athens apparently posted it without her employers’ permission. Leading to an altercation in which she was arrested:
Late Friday afternoon, Athens got into a physical fight with her station manager boss, with whom she was in a romantic relationship, according to court documents.
A charging document in the case says Athens and station general manager Scott Centers fought in a car “about work,” with Athens punching Centers and hitting him with her cell phone. Athens said she grabbed Centers’ arm because he was driving erratically during the argument but denies attacking Centers.
Later, Athens allegedly hit Centers again inside the TV station. When police arrived at the TV station and arrested her, she hit a cop on his vest and tried to kick the doors of the police cruiser, causing police to put her in full restraints, the charging document said. Athens said she did not touch the officer. Also, she said, “I was never in full restraints.”
Athens was charged with misdemeanor assault, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct and jailed at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center. [Anchorage Daily News]
Athens, it also turned out, prior to going public with their relationship, had left Berkowitz an unhinged voicemail (you really must listen to it) in which she accused him of being a pedophile, called him a “Jew motherf*cker,” said she would kill him, and signed off with “have a great Friday, you motherf*cker,” all in her practiced newscaster voice.
Ethan, it’s Maria Athens from Fox/ABC/CW/News Net National Alaska. Uh, I just learned through my g- my, eh, ah….Emmy-award winning journalism, you’re also a pedophile and like little girls and children, and there’s a website. I’m so f*cking exposing you. I’m gonna get an Emmy. So you either turn yourself in, kill yourself, or do what you need to do. I will personally kill you and Mara Kimmel my god damn self, you Jewish piece of living f*cking sh*t. You have met your match, motherf*cker. You have met your motherf*cking match. I can’t believe- I am such a good person, and thought I loved you. I f*cking hate- I don’t even hate you. I will pray for your Zionist f*cking ass, you piece of sh*t loser. And, I’m putting this on the news tonight. Bye! Have a great Friday, you motherf*cker!
You might naturally wonder what led Maria Athens to believe that her “inappropriate texting” partner was a pedophile. It turns out, it all started with a piece Athens had been doing about a local owner of a shop that sells booze-infused cookies.
The name of the owner and cookie shop have since been scrubbed from the sites that had them, apparently at the request of the cookie shop owner herself. But according to the cookie shop lady’s daughter, who runs an OnlyFans account, her mom was unhappy about her escorting, and during an aside with Maria Athens during the cookie piece, may have convinced Athens that Mayor Berkowitz had been paying her “underage daughter” to escort for him. This even though, according to the daughter, she was neither underage nor familiar with the mayor.
This from the daughter’s tweet thread and the Anchorage Press:
So for a bit of back story, I was an escort in Alaska in 2018. I would get paid to go on dates with men or to keep them company (I never did anything sexual or was paid for sexual favors)
She was obviously still very upset at the idea of her 18 year old daughter escorting. She started asking me questions about who I would work with, and all I told her was that my favorite person I worked with was a man that worked for the state of Alaska.
All I told her about this man was that he worked for the state of Alaska, and that he was short. That’s IT, okay? I didn’t say any names, nothing.
Fast forward to 2020, my mother owns a cookie business that’s doing somewhat successful, and a local news station asked my mom if she would like to do a story about it. My mom said yes and went to the interview.
The interviewer was Maria Athens, who (according to my mother) asked her about what my mom thought about the local anchorage Mayor, Ethan Berkowitz.
My mom asked if he was short. After learning he was short, my mom decided that Ethan Berkowitz was the one I was an escort for.
She went off on a whole story about how I was an escort for Mr. Berkowitz, that he hired me for sexual favors, sent me pictures, etc. because she was receiving attention for what she was saying, and she wanted her five seconds of fame.
I was NOT and escort for Ethan Berkowitz, I don’t know that man and I have NEVER met him. He has never sent me naked pictures or posted any on any of my websites, I have no idea who that man is. Maria Athens is running a fake story in attempts to ruin this mans life.
Also apparently last night she was arrested and that’s why she wasn’t on air.
The Anchorage Press also has a text from “Angelbbx2” (aka Redhead Rae) to her mother trying to get her to call Maria Athens and explain that this was all a case of mistaken identity. But Athens apparently ignored the mom’s calls (the mom says cryptically that Athens “has an agenda”), and soon enough, Athens had already outed Berkowitz on Facebook and sent him that voicemail Anti-Semitic death threat pedophile accusation. Athens seems to have had some kind of mental breakdown between 2015 and the false pedophilia accusation this week, if these clips are any indication. 2020’s mainstreaming of elite pedophile cabal conspiracy theories can’t have helped things.
We should reiterate, Anchorage’s Democratic mayor Ethan Berkowitz resigned over all of this, even though all he has admitted to thus far was a texting relationship with this anchor who clearly has had some kind of mental breakdown. And all this, apparently, over a misinterpreted anecdote during a booze-cookie puff piece.
I think the cookie lady’s daughter summed it up quite well:
Yeah none of this would have happened if my mother wouldn’t have lied to her and caused her to mentally break. Whether or not they had an affair, she wouldn’t have made that news story, accused him of being a pedophile publicly, or sent that voicemail.
— redhead rae
(@angelbbx2) October 13, 2020
Man, this whole thing is like a Coen Brothers movie.