NY Times Runs Cover for Joe Biden by Stealth Editing an Article Exposing Sexual Assault Allegations Against Him

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Apr 14, 2020

The New York Times is clearly in the tank for the Democrats in the 2020 elections.

Now, they’re attempting to exonerate Biden of sexual allegations coming from Tara Reade, a former staff assistant in Biden’s Senate staff.

William Jacobson of Legal Insurrection correctly pointed out that the Times’ handling of Reade’s allegations against Biden was a stark contrast from its coverage of the Kavanaugh case. When Brett Kavanaugh was up for his Supreme Court nomination, he was presumed guilty by mainstream media outlets without any strong evidence.

Reason’s Robbie Soave offered a poignant contrast of the Times coverage of Kavanaugh with the Times reporting on Reade’s allegations against Biden:

The mainstream media’s silence regarding a former staffer’s sexual assault accusation against Joe Biden is finally broken: The New York Times covered the allegations on Sunday in an extensively reported piece, “Examining Tara Reade’s Sexual Assault Allegation Against Joe Biden.”

It’s an excruciatingly matter-of-fact article, bereft of the emotion and rhetorical flourishes that have often characterized the Times‘ past reporting on #MeToo stories. The Times‘ investigative piece on Deborah Ramirez, Brett Kavanaugh’s Yale accuser, was headlined, “Brett Kavanaugh Fit in With the Privileged Kids. She Did Not.” The paper also ran ostensibly objective pieces with headlines like “For Christine Blasey Ford, a Drastic Turn From a Quiet Life in Academia” and “With Caffeine and Determination, Christine Blasey Ford Relives Her Trauma.” These were news articles, but it was not hard to detect an agenda: portray the accuser as so likable and sympathetic that readers would want to believe her.

There is no such agenda in the Reade article; the reporters come across as extremely skeptical of her (not without some justification). The paragraph containing the news hook for this story—that Reade finally, on Thursday, filed a police report about the incident—contains this oddly placed reminder: “Filing a false police report may be punishable by a fine and imprisonment.

 

Jacobson noted that there was some damning information in the Times report:

There was some damaging material in the Times’ report, particularly that Reade told a friend about the alleged assault at the time. That doesn’t make it true, it’s called a prior consistent statement which is generally not admissible, except to rebut an allegation of recent fabrication. Since recent fabrication seems to be an allegation against Reade — that she’s a Bernie supporter and made the claim to help Bernie — the fact that she told someone at the time does rebut the claim of recent fabrication.

 

Per the Times report:

A friend said that Ms. Reade told her about the alleged assault at the time, in 1993. A second friend recalled Ms. Reade telling her in 2008 that Mr. Biden had touched her inappropriately and that she’d had a traumatic experience while working in his office. Both friends agreed to speak to The Times on the condition of anonymity to protect the privacy of their families and their self-owned businesses.

Ms. Reade said she also told her brother, who has confirmed parts of her account publicly but who did not speak to The Times, and her mother, who has since died.

However, Jacobson noted that “there was a giveaway that calls into question the Times’ motive.” According to an archive of the original Times article, one sentence stood out in particular:

No other allegation about sexual assault surfaced in the course of reporting, nor did any former Biden staff members corroborate any details of Ms. Reade’s allegation. The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden, beyond the hugs, kisses and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable.

In addition, the Times also tweeted that language (screenshot):

Many casual observers noted how the allegations against Kavanaugh were much weaker.

It also stood in contrast to the weakness of the claims against Kavanaugh put forward by the Times.

 

 

The Times ended up stealth editing the article to remove the wording and take down the tweet.

Fox News reported the following:

The New York Times stealth-edited its article on the sexual-assault allegation against Joe Biden by his former Senate staffer Tara Reade just minutes after it was published on Sunday morning, removing all references in a key paragraph to the multiple past accusations by seven women that the former vice president had touched them inappropriately….

That paragraph now reads: “No other allegation about sexual assault surfaced in the course of reporting, nor did any former Biden staff members corroborate any details of Ms. Reade’s allegation. The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden.” …

The New York Times subsequently deleted the tweet from the thread about the story.

The Times issued an unsatisfactory explanation.

 

It should not be a surprise why people have such low faith in the mainstream media in light of the Times’ recent behavior.

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