Amidst the media furor over Brett Kavanaugh and the treatment of women, it was revealed on Tuesday that the Democratic nominee for governor’s past includes physically attacking a female employee and then disconnecting the phone as she attempted to dial 911. All three networks on Tuesday and Wednesday morning ignored the report broken by The Washington Free Beacon.
The candidate, Jared Polis, is currently a United States Congressman. The incident happened in 1999. Free Beacon writer Todd Shepherd broke the story and explained:
Jared Polis, the Democratic nominee for governor in Colorado, was involved in a physical altercation with an ex-employee in which he admitted to police he pushed the woman, according to a police report obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The incident dates back to June of 1999 and took place at an office Polis had in Boulder for a company called JPS International LLC.
…
Other court documents show that [Patricia] Hughes sought and was granted a temporary restraining order against Polis two days after the incident. About three weeks later, the order was vacated.
Colorado-centric website The Gazette offered this detail:
A supplement to the report says Hughes told officers that Polis “grabbed her and pushed her back into the office” when she tried to leave. “Hughes said that when (Polis) pushed her she was pushed back into a filing cabinet, hurting her leg.” She also told officers she attempted to dial 911 three times and that Polis had disconnected the phone twice.
On Tuesday, ABC’s World News Tonight, the CBS Evening News and the NBC Nightly News skipped the report. On Wednesday, ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS This Morning and NBC’s Today did the same. This is a combined air time of seven and a half hours.
No one is saying that this incident almost 20 years ago is comparable to the importance of the Kavanaugh hearings or accusations. But the networks and cable channels have covered several 2018 midterm races all across the country. And considering how prominent the treatment of women is, media outlets could have spared a few seconds for the story.
