AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden is facing a
growing sexual assault scandal, but Americans who only watch left-leaning TV
networks may not have even heard about it. Biden’s former staffer Tara Reade
went public with her claims on March 25, and since then new evidence has
arisen, making her accusation far
more credible than Christine Blasey Ford’s claims against then-Supreme
Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Yet left-leaning mainstream media outlets have
nearly boycotted the story over the past month.
The Media Research Center (MRC) analyzed
the news coverage on ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, and PBS between
March 25 and April 27. During that month-plus period, these networks devoted a
paltry 27 minutes and 31 seconds to Reade’s sexual assault allegations. By
contrast, ABC, CBS, and NBC morning and evening news shows dedicated nearly
six hours to Ford’s accusations against Kavanaugh in the twelve days
after Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) went public that there was an
unspecified allegation against the Supreme Court nominee.
ABC and NBC have not even spent one second on the Tara
Reade story, however, according to MRC. CBS has devoted a paltry 63 seconds,
while PBS gave the story seven minutes. CNN and MSNBC are all-day news
networks, so they had more opportunity to cover the story, but they haven’t.
MSNBC covered Tara Reade for four and a half minutes in mid-April, and CNN
completely ignored the story until Saturday, when it dedicated 14 minutes and
54 seconds to it.
Perhaps these networks are too busy covering the
coronavirus crisis to fit in a Joe Biden story? Hardly. Over the past month,
ABC, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC all interviewed Biden on live TV, and no interview
touched on the allegations. Out of 77 questions posed to the former vice
president, not a single one involved Tara Reade’s claims.
CNN finally covered the story after The Intercept
reported that Reade’s mother had called in to Larry King Live on
August 11, 1993, to ask for advice on how to deal with the sexual assault her
daughter allegedly suffered at the hands of Joe Biden. “I remember it being an
anonymous call,” Reade told Ryan Grim.
The Media Research Center traced down that call, which
confirms that Reade shared her story with her mother at the time of the
assault.
When Ford accused Kavanaugh of having attempted to rape
her at some vague point in the 1980s, she could not get one person to confirm
her accusation — or even to say that Ford had been traumatized at the time. By
contrast, Reade’s
friend and her brother both confirmed to The Intercept that she had
been torn up about Biden’s alleged abuse. Two
more witnesses, a neighbor and a former coworker, also confirmed that the
alleged victim had confided in them regarding the abuse.
While Ford was a liberal accusing a conservative who had
been nominated for a high government position, Reade is a liberal accusing a
fellow liberal who will likely be the only viable alternative to Donald Trump
for the presidency.
This fact and these witnesses do not come close to proving
Biden guilty, but they do add to the plausibility of the accusation.
Specifically, Reade alleges that Biden shoved his hand under her skirt and
penetrated her with his fingers in a Senate corridor. She filed
a report with Washington, D.C., police earlier this month.
Tara Reade’s accusation may or may not be true, but it is
a major news story regarding the presumptive nominee of one of America’s two
major parties. It is utterly disgraceful for left-leaning news outlets to
effectively bury the story.
The pro-Biden bias at these TV news outlets isn’t exactly
a secret. But when the same people who shouted “believe all women” at the top
of their lungs during the Kavanaugh hearings are suddenly silent about sexual
assault when a woman makes a far more credible claim against Joe Biden,
Americans should be outraged.
Tyler
O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the
Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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