As Twitchy reported, CNN finally posted a story on Tara Reade’s sexual harassment allegations against then-Sen. Joe Biden on April 17, after The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway noted that a search for “Christine Blasey Ford” on CNN’s website pulled up around 700 results, while a search for “Tara Reade” produced precisely zero.
CNN took a sort of “Republicans pounce” angle, noting that Democrats were grappling with questions about the assault allegation. The rest of the media took the cue, with Politico, The Intercept, and Mother Jones all using the word “grappling” in their headlines and tweets about Biden and Reade.
Video has since emerged of Reade’s late mother calling into “Larry King Live” and alluding to her daughter’s “problems” with a “prominent senator.” Newsbusters’ Brent Baker notes that the footage came from the Media Research Center’s archive and not from CNN, the network that aired “Larry King Live.”
I taped on VCR in '93, Fri @RichNoyes got it fr @TheMRC archive. FNC jumped on it. Took CNN until Sat afternoon. @BrianSFlood: “Rather than CNN’s team of investigative reporters, it was the MRC’s @NewsBusters…that exhumed the footage from its own vault” https://t.co/3L1MHvqOdH pic.twitter.com/3nQ0klGkWA
— Brent Baker (@BrentHBaker) April 25, 2020
CNN did finally jump on the story Saturday.
Joe Biden's accuser says her mother called into 'Larry King Live' in 1993 for advice after alleged sexual assault. Her mother did live in the city call came from and the call came when Reade left Biden’s office in August 1993. https://t.co/PY3cUbkWdu
— andrew kaczynski? (@KFILE) April 25, 2020
Recommended
"The Biden campaign declined to comment on the video, referring CNN to statements it previously released denying Reade's sexual assault allegation." https://t.co/TWyQRFthDR
— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) April 25, 2020
Good enough for them! https://t.co/WvR5YJFHOv
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) April 25, 2020
We’d have thought CNN media reporters Oliver Darcy and Brian Stelter would have been all over this.
Case closed. Now Stelter can go back to watching Fox.
— johnny credulous boomer rube (@johnnycy89) April 25, 2020
Story’s been fully covered now! All it needs is one more Tapper tweet.
— Teddy Obermann (@ObermannTeddy) April 25, 2020
The science is settled. No more grappling.
— FreeMePlease (@PhillyToMaine) April 25, 2020
CNN: “Case closed”
— End The Shutdown (@investig8thefbi) April 25, 2020
"Well, that settles that!" – CNN
— Fish Tank Cleaner Eating Gator Fan (@Gator_Country) April 25, 2020
— Nathan Hale (@ImNathanHale) April 25, 2020
This will be a collaborative "memory-holing" between the MSM & DNC/Biden campaign of a harmful story.
They have no reasonable alternate candidate to beat Trump, so will do whatever it takes to "deep-six" this story.
We'll see…
— Duopianos (@stgreene61) April 25, 2020
Nobody will ask Joe Biden because he can't even remember who tied his shoes this morning
— jim mcguigan (@jimmcguigan1) April 25, 2020
They can at least honestly say their client has no memory of prior events…..
— Trans waif (@TransWaif) April 25, 2020
One thing has changed: A search of CNN’s website now pulls up four results for a search of “Tara Reade,” although one of them is headlined, “How Trump lost the public on coronavirus.” Let’s see if the media watchdogs at CNN settle for the Biden campaign’s statement or do some more grappling with the story.
Related:
‘Script is out!’ The media has definitely received the memo on how to spin assault allegations against Joe Biden (Hint: ‘So much grappling’) https://t.co/dF7RFJWFXC
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 24, 2020
Join the conversation as a VIP Member