Tara Reade gave an interview to Fox News over the weekend in which she lashed out at the Democratic politicians, women’s groups and the media, all of whom she believes are ignoring or downplaying her allegations against Joe Biden. Reade even compared the coverage of her story to that of Christine Blasey Ford, noting that the fact Kavanaugh was a conservative seemed to make all the difference in the world to the media.
“I’d like my history with Biden to be examined in a dignified way that’s not slanted by political bias or sensationalized. I’d like a deeper conversation about the fact that sexual harassment and sexual assault do not have a political party, agenda,” Tara Reade told Fox News in an interview Saturday. “It’s an equal opportunity offender. There are Democratic offenders as well as Republican offenders and I’m sure Independent and Green Party. I mean, it doesn’t matter what your party affiliation is, and it shouldn’t as far as the media coverage regarding claims.”…
“Blasey Ford, because it was a conservative candidate they were going to put in the Supreme Court, was treated with much more deference by most of the media outlets, although her experience was difficult as well. And she received threats and received her own pain,” Reade said. “I’ve basically had no substantive support from women’s groups that are considered liberal or Democratic. I’ve had no support from any Democratic candidate, although I’ve reached out. And I’ve received either slanted reporting that ended up being talking points for Biden’s campaign or silence from the mainstream media. So that’s my contention and my concern.”…
“What I’d like to say to the slanted reporting where they are omitting details, where they are not investigating corroborating [testimony], what I would like to say to them at this point and some of the silence from some the candidates Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren that at this point, if you continue to silence me, if you continue to engage in protecting a powerful man without giving my case a closer look, you are complicit in rape,” Reade declared.
Reade is absolutely correct about the media’s handling of her claims. She gave this interview on Saturday before the Sunday shows once again confirmed it. As Jazz mentioned earlier, there wasn’t a single mention of Reade’s allegations on any of the Sunday shows despite the news hook of a newly uncovered video tape in which her mother called the Larry King live show back in 1993. Yesterday, Fox News published a different account of Reade’s interview in which she was specifically critical of CNN’s Anderson Cooper:
“I think it’s shocking that this much time has passed and that he is an actual nominee for president and they’re not asking the questions,” Reade told Fox News. “He’s been on ‘Anderson Cooper’ at least twice where he was not asked.”
“I guess my question is, if this were Donald Trump, would they treat it the same way? If this were Brett Kavanaugh, did they treat it the same way?” Reade said. “In other words, it’s politics and political agenda playing a role in objective reporting and asking the question.”
CNN did run a story Saturday about the Larry King segment and had the reporter on air to discuss it. So they are beginning to cover this but not to the point of asking Joe Biden about it.
As for the support from women’s groups. Reade went to TimesUp back in January to see if they could help her secure a lawyer to handle her claim against Biden. TimesUp did provide Reade with a list of options but told her it couldn’t help her beyond that because they are a 501(c)(3) organization and taking on a presidential nominee would put their tax-exempt status in jeopardy.
But Times Up isn’t the only group that has stayed on the sidelines. Last week Mother Jones reported, “Eight national organizations that advocate for sexual violence survivors did not respond to a request for a comment or interview.”
As much as I agree with everything Reade is saying about the media and the obvious hypocrisy of women’s groups on this, her interview with Fox may make it less likely that other outlets will cover her story. Reade is a life-long Democrat who worked for Democrats until she left her job with Biden in 1993. But that won’t matter now that she has gone to Fox News.
We saw this same dynamic play out with Bret Weinstein. On some issues his politics are to the left of Bernie Sanders, but the moment he went on the Tucker Carlson’s show to complain about what was happening at Evergreen State College, he was deemed to have committed an unpardonable sin, i.e. he went outside the progressive bubble and collaborated with the enemy.
The same will likely happen with Reade. Reporters at mainstream organizations who routinely attack Fox News are now going to see her as tainted. In fact, many at these outlets will be far more bothered by Reade’s media bias allegations than by her sexual assault allegations against Biden.
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