Reason.com’s Robby Soave: “Joe Biden Said He Believes All Women. Does He Believe Tara Reade?”
Tara Reade is a former Biden staffer who has come forward to accuse the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee of sexual assault. It’s a story, like many of these stories, that’s been floating around a while as the victim dithered about going public. But three days ago, a story appeared on the far-left Intercept website, detailing her allegation and the resistance it was generating.
You might recall the 3-inch headlines in the Washington Post and the New York Times reporting on the allegations and the wall-to-wall cable news coverage as well. Oh…wait.
Not a peep from media sources that made a huge show of their support for women’s charges of harassment and assault no matter how old or flimsy they were.
The story of Reade’s sexual assault — that Biden tried kissing her, groped her, and penetrated her with his fingers — isn’t as important as the reaction of feminists, liberals and the media. True, we’re in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic. But this is a story that could derail Biden’s candidacy — if the media let it.
The mainstream media has given Reade little attention. She was interviewed on Hill.TV by Krystall Ball and Saagar Enjeti (whose populist impulses often put them at odds with the establishments of both parties), but The New York Times, Washington Post, and CNN have all declined to cover the story thus far.
The anti-Biden left, however, has seized the opportunity. #IBelieveTaraReade was trending on Twitter on Thursday. Nathan Robinson, editor of the leftist publication Current Affairs, has criticized MSNBC and CNN for failing to cover the story.
Obviously, the far left has no interest whatsoever in being fair or avoiding the appearance of a double standard. That makes their attempts to push this story meaningless. Reade may or may not be credible — she was, indeed, a staffer for Biden and worked for him during the time of the accusation — but she supposedly filled out a sexual harassment form in Biden’s office that no one seems to know where it is.
And, according to the Intercept, when she first came forward with her accusation last year, prominent leftists accused her of being a Russian operative. Reade wrote, and then deleted, a loving tribute to Vladimir Putin:
latest woman to accuse Biden of touching her inappropriately – https://t.co/GY8BNSsOtI – wrote in December: "I love Russia with all my heart … President Putin scares the power elite in America because he is a compassionate, caring, visionary leader." https://t.co/gzbhSRps43
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) April 4, 2019
Should we apply the same skepticism to Reade’s story that was shown toward Justice Kavanaugh’s accuser, Christine Blaisey Ford? In the court of public opinion, all that matters is spinning the facts. Both sides will see what they want to, choose which facts to believe or dismiss.
But the media has no excuse. This is big news whether they think so or not. All they’re doing by ignoring the story is confirming what everyone knows about them: they’re a bunch of partisan, agenda-driven hacks. It remains to be seen if they go so far to target and destroy Reade as they do with their other marks.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member