I wrote this morning about the massive journalism fail that has been on display since the story of Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden first broke 36 days ago.
The big-name news outlets like the New York Times, the Washington Post, and CNN have only given the story obligatory coverage – and they didn’t even file their first reports on Reade’s claims until 3 weeks after she first made them. To top it off, Joe Biden himself has not been directly asked at all about them in the numerous interviews he’s given over the last 5 weeks.
MSNBC’s coverage has been the worst of the lot. According to MRC-TV, up until Tuesday, MSNBC’s total coverage of the story amounted to less than 5 minutes. That changed last night, when “All In” host Chris Hayes weighed in. Here’s a partial transcript:
CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC: Throughout the entire #MeToo era there have been moments I think for many of us, all of us, when we have heard about accusations against someone, that we find ourselves desperately wanting not to believe. But because we have some personal admiration for the individual or their work, or political admiration, someone on our “side.” A part of the difficult lesson of the #MeToo era is not that every accusation is true and everything should be believed on its face but that you do have to fight yourself when you feel that impulse. You have to do that in order to take seriously what is being alleged and what the evidence is, and to evaluate it. And that is the case with the accusations by a woman named Tara Reade against Joe Biden.
Reade briefly worked as a Senate aide in Biden’s office in the early 90s. Last year she told a California newspaper that in 1993 Joe Biden “touched” her several times making her feel uncomfortable. At that time, Reade was one of several women who came forward around that moment with accusations against the former vice president of inappropriate sort of over-physicalness, touching, kissing or hugging that they say made them feel uncomfortable. Then last month she made a much more serious allegation telling first a podcast and then later ‘The New York Times’ that in 1993, Joe Biden pinned her to a wall in the Senate building, reached under the clothing and penetrated her with his fingers. Reade told the ‘Times’ that she filed a complaint with the Senate that same year about what happened with Biden.
The segment actually went on for several minutes as Hayes gave the story a more thorough and fair analysis than the rest of his colleagues at MSNBC and the mainstream media at large. Newsbusters has the full transcript of the segment. You can watch a portion of it below:
https://twitter.com/ibrahimpols/status/1255683581399183360
Because Hayes had the audacity to “go there” with the Biden story, #FireChrisHayes trended on Twitter last night, and his name is still trending as of this writing. Here are some examples:
🤡 They’re so mad that Chris Hayes is reporting the news. pic.twitter.com/inAUCUs76k
— Woobie🌹Tuesday (@WoobieTuesday) April 30, 2020
Hey Chris Hayes, you ran such a dishonest story about Joe Biden tonight, #FireChrisHayes is starting to trend. Let's say we make it trend all the way. Hayes needs to retract the story or go do something else for a living.https://t.co/OKaTP4evax
— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) April 30, 2020
If people like Chris Hayes think they're going to #ButHerEmails through this election like they did the last election, they've got another think coming.
— LaurenBaratzLogsted (@LaurenBaratzL) April 30, 2020
Twitchy documented numerous other instances of outraged liberals who tore into Hayes.
So much for the “party of women”, right?
Chris Hayes of MSNBC is getting harassed by his own party for covering the sexual abuse allegations against Joe Biden.
The Democrats claim to be the "party of women", but they are calling for the FIRING of a journalist simply for mentioning the Tara Reade story.
Hypocritical?
— Errol Webber For Congress (CA-37) (@ErrolWebber) April 30, 2020
Chris Hayes has been one of the media's most virulent, relentless & arguably effective Trump critics — an all-consuming loathing for the President — but #FireChrisHayes was trending because he covered the sex assault allegations against Biden.
Shows what MSNBC has cultivated.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 30, 2020
Must protect The Precious.
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