When Christine Blasey Ford, Deborah Ramirez, and Julie Swetnick came forward with allegations of sexual assault against associate justice Brett Kavanaugh, the media was quick to not only jump on the #MeToo movement, but also smear Kavanaugh. One headline, which became infamous after the story in the article proved to be unfounded, read “Brett Kavanaugh Fit In With The Privileged Kids. She Did Not.”
On March 25, Tara Reade said in a podcast that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden assaulted her while she was on his U.S. Senate staff in 1993. Sadly, her allegations have been largely ignored by most media outlets. In fact, after being made aware of the accusation, The New York Times took 19 days to report Reade’s claims.
All women — all people — have a right to speak up when they feel they have been wronged, no matter their politics or the politics of the alleged perpetrator.
The New York Times’ double standard, however, spotlights the paper’s political bias. More importantly, it dismisses Reade and her claim.
The New York Times doesn’t believe all women. And that’s not very #woke.
When The New York Times finally did report Reade’s allegations on April 12, the paper tweeted this: “We found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Biden, beyond hugs, kisses and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable.” But they quickly edited the sentence, removing “beyond hugs, kisses and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable,” because the Biden campaign told them to do so.
Any individual who is accused of a crime is innocent until proven guilty. But these cases — just like those of Blasey Ford, Ramirez, and Swetnick — should be respected, taken seriously, and investigated properly.
Last April, eight women, including Reade, publicly claimed that Biden assaulted them. But then, and now, the media has remained mostly silent.
In a Q&A, New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet said that the paper’s reporting on Kavanaugh was different than their treatment of Biden because Kavanaugh “was already in the public forum in a large way.”
Right, because being a presidential candidate, former vice president, and former senator is not “in the public forum in a large way.”
The media is choosing to silence Reade and protect Biden.
Maybe Biden and his supporters in the media should take his own advice: When a woman alleges sexual assault, presume she is telling the truth. If we’re going to #BelieveAllWomen, let’s believe Lucy Flores, Amy Lappos, D.J. Hill, Cailtyn Caruso, Ally Coll, Sofie Karasek, Vail Kohnert-Yount, and Tara Reade.
Or maybe we should just let due process run its course.
