MRC Original: Graham Platner’s unusual rise to political stardom followed one of literature’s oldest archetypes: an ordinary man (in this case, a so-called oyster farmer) challenges a seemingly indomitable enemy or power, transforming into a folk hero.
But at the core of every folk hero is a moral center that may bend, but never breaks. Despite Apple and Google’s best efforts to conceal Platner’s vacuous center, the growing evidence detailing the leftist darling’s shocking disregard for past girlfriends and combat veterans shows he’s no Rocky Balboa or Frodo Baggins.
The Media Research Center, in one of its most ambitious studies to date, found that Apple News and Google News, two of the most influential news aggregators, effectively shielded Platner from criticism. MRC data paint a startling picture: Apple News and Google News blocked stories about Platner's mounting scandals from their feeds as he led the polls, silenced right-leaning outlets exposing the truth and then opened the floodgates when a Fox News poll showed Republican Sen. Susan Collins defeating Platner for the first time as sexual abuse allegations resurfaced.
MRC’s Findings:
- Apple News and Google News ran zero stories from November through May with headlines about Platner’s mounting controversies, including his Nazi tattoo and deleted Reddit posts, in which he called himself a "communist," denounced America and attacked police. The news blackout began during the Democratic Party primary as the first poll indicated that only Platner would defeat Collins in a hypothetical match-up. The blackout ended only after a May 30 report when sexting allegations came to light.
- From November through May, Apple News and Google News willfully hid at least 112 significant stories from some of the most widely read right-leaning outlets covering Platner’s scandals, indicating a troubling pattern of intentional censorship.
- Apple News and Google News’s effective shielding of Platner slightly ebbed after the first sex scandal stories were published. The tech titans’ censorship racket then completely collapsed when Fox News polling published on June 30, 2026, showed he would likely no longer defeat Collins, with both news aggregators suddenly promoting 12 negative stories about the embattled candidate on July 7 and 8.
In response to these findings, MRC President David Bozell blasted Apple News and Google News for shielding Graham Platner from scandals when it mattered most.“Apple News and Google News ran a protection racket for Graham Platner,” Bozell said. “For months, while Platner looked like the one Democrat who could beat Susan Collins, the two most powerful news apps in America buried scandal after scandal. Then the polls turned, Platner became a liability, and suddenly the blackout ended. News judgment had nothing to do with it. Millions of smartphone users were denied the truth while Platner was politically useful and finally allowed to see it once he wasn’t.”
Apple and Google’s News Suppression an Oath to Platner?
Timeframe: Nov. 1 through May 30
No other politician benefited more from Apple News and Google News’s left-wing slant than Graham Platner, a radical socialist who was engaged in a pitched battle against the more moderate Governor of Maine for the right to take on Sen. Susan Collins (R) in the general election. During the critical months of his primary campaign, neither news aggregator featured a single story about the scandals surrounding his candidacy.
Apple News and Google News are two of the most influential news sources in the digital era, effectively shaping what millions of users encounter each day.
The Media Research Center has consistently shown that these digital news gatekeepers, collectively receiving over 215 million monthly visits, exhibit a left-wing bias in their editorial decisions and algorithmic recommendations.
The outcome is often the same: they selectively bury stories that are detrimental to Democrats, promote negative stories about Republicans, all while giving far more visibility to left-leaning media sources.
In Platner’s case, data indicate that Apple News and Google News’s coverage blackout closely aligned with his standing in the race. When Platner’s poll numbers indicated future success in unseating Sen. Collins, news coverage of his scandals were hidden from smartphone users. Once the tide shifted, as concerned Democrat Party leaders began calling on Platner to step down, the news aggregators again appeared to do the party's bidding to accelerate Platner’s departure.
MRC found that the digital news aggregators effectively shielded tens of millions of users from negative coverage of Platner. From Nov. 1 through May 30 (when The New York Times published its story about sexting allegations against Platner), neither Apple News nor Google News featured a single story about Platner in their heavily trafficked top 20 morning news feeds except for one story promoted by Google News on April 7 touting an Axios piece on Platner’s confidence that he would defeat Mills in the Maine primary.
During the same period, Platner was already being dogged by mounting controversies, including that he had a Nazi-tied tattoo and the resurfacing of disturbing Reddit posts.
As early as October, Platner's scandalous Totenkopf tattoo was revealed, along with his social media posts in which he tried to excuse sexual abuse. He also made racist comments about black Americans, smeared rural Mainers, disparaged “all” cops as bastards and used sexist slurs.
MRC has long shown that bias by omission can be just as influential as bias by commission. By not publishing major stories about Platner, Apple News and Google News likely helped to ensure that many Americans continued to believe in Platner as a folk hero, presumably maintaining enthusiasm for his candidacy, including through campaign contributions.
The timing was notable. Coinciding with Apple News and Google News's erasure of the Platner scandals was a poll that, for the first time, showed that only he could defeat Collins in a hypothetical general election matchup. The same poll showed that Collins could defeat the other Democratic opponent, Maine Governor Janet Mills (D), in a similar hypothetical, virtually ensuring that Republicans would maintain a majority in the U.S. Senate.
The Maine People’s Resource Center poll, conducted Oct. 26-29 and released later to the public on Nov. 12, effectively anointed Platner as the Democrats’ most viable option to defeat Collins. The data suggest that Apple and Google were paying attention.
Apple and Google Shunned Hundreds of Damning Platner Stories from Right-Leaning Media
Apple News and Google News had no shortage of shocking stories about Platner to choose from. MRC identified no less than 112 stories from right-leaning outlets, and additional publications from left-leaning and center outlets, like The New York Times, HuffPost, and The Wall Street Journal, that covered the scandals dogging Platner. Yet as polls showed Platner comfortably beating Collins, the news aggregators chose to conceal the negative stories about him, depriving voters of vital news and information.
The right-leaning stories that were sidelined by Apple and Google came from some of the most visited news sources in America, including Fox News, Daily Mail, New York Post, Breitbart, Newsmax, The Federalist, The Washington Times and Washington Examiner.
Some of the headlines that Apple and Google could have promoted on their news feeds:
- “Graham Platner blames Nazi tattoo on military ‘culture,’ draws backlash from GOP veterans,” by Fox News.
- “New website puts Platner on notice by amplifying scandals: 'One red flag after another,'” by Fox News.
- “Top off-the-wall Reddit posts haunting Graham Platner’s Maine Senate bid,” by Fox News.
- “The Guy Who Blamed His Nazi Tattoo, Social Media Post on His Military Service Once Said This About PTSD,” by TownHall.
- “‘I’m not a secret Nazi’: SS-like tattoo sported by Graham Platner, Maine Democratic Senate hopeful,” by The Washington Times.
- “Democrats go all-in for Mr. Nazi Tattoo,” by Washington Examiner.
- “Report: Graham Platner Once Lamented Thai Prostitute ‘Loophole’ Closing,” by Breitbart.
- “Platner Campaign Knew of Explicit Texts Before Senate Bid Gained Momentum,” by Newsmax.
- “Vote for the Nazi Tattoo Guy to Fight Against ‘Fascism,’” by National Review.
In fact, these outlets dedicated extensive coverage to the scandals, providing details previously ignored by elitist media outlets. For instance, Fox News had a team on the ground in Maine covering the Platner developments, while it provided immediate coverage of his interviews and other reactions on social media.
Apple and Google also hid plenty of additional right-leaning outlets with strong Platner coverage. Examples include: American Thinker, Daily Caller, Daily Signal, Just the News, National Review, The Blaze, The Epoch Times, The Gateway Pundit, The Post Millennial, The Telegraph and The Western Journal.
Apple and Google Appear to Abruptly Abandon Platner after Sexual Abuse Accusations and First Poll Showed Platner Losing
Apple News and Google News’s silence around Platner’s scandals ended almost as quickly as his polling advantage disappeared and right after he was hit with disturbing allegations of sexual abuse.
MRC identified that Platner first appeared in Apple News and Google News’s top 20 feeds in the mornings on June 5 and April 7, respectively. This was months after his campaign had already gained momentum. But even then, the headlines of the stories blatantly omitted the scandals that ultimately derailed his candidacy.
In fact, the first overtly negative story Google News surfaced about Platner did not appear on its morning feeds until May 31, when it promoted four stories covering accusations about Platner’s reported infidelities. Apple News did not follow suit until June 5, when it trumpeted Platner saying that Maine Democrats would “have my back” following the emergence of scandalous stories.
“Rather than actually informing readers of the biggest news of the Maine Senate race, Apple News and Google News promoted articles that seemed to serve more as a soft re-launch of Platner’s campaign, a kind of second chance to help him recover,” said MRC Free Speech America VP Dan Schneider.
The timing of Platner’s debut on the Apple News and Google News apps occurred at the same time that Democratic Party officials and campaign operatives started to openly discuss whether Platner should withdraw from the campaign. Later, after the release of a Fox News statewide poll on June 30 showing Sen. Collins hypothetically overtaking and beating Platner by three percentage points among Maine registered voters (50% to 47%), Apple News and Google News published a torrent of articles all but pointing Platner to the exit door.
The Fox News poll found that more than half of respondents expressed concern about Platner’s judgment to serve in the Senate, including 38% who said they were “extremely” concerned and 16% who said they were “very” concerned.
The poll, conducted June 23-27, marked the first survey showing Platner trailing Collins since he became the Democratic nominee following the June 9 primary. Previous polls had shown Platner leading Collins by several percentage points.
In total, Apple News had only nine stories with headlines about Platner, out of which five were negatively framed. Google had 26 stories, 16 of which were also negatively framed.
MRC Free Speech America Interns Regan Fillmore, Abel Jones, Jack Mortensen and Katharine Reyes conducted the research for this special report.
Methodology: The Media Research Center tracked the top 20 stories on Apple News and Google News each morning from Nov. 1, 2025, through July 8, 2026, analyzing the headlines of stories related to Graham Platner and the accusations levied against him. MRC researchers searched using the terms “Maine,” “Mills” and “Platner,” and then used sentiment analysis to rate the Platner-focused headlines across both news aggregators as negative, neutral or positive.
The review period spans time between the Maine People’s Resource Center poll showing Platner leading Collins in a general election matchup, conducted Oct. 26 - 29 and released Nov. 12, 2025, and the first post-primary Fox News poll released June 30, 2026, showing Collins leading Platner. During that period, MRC found that Apple News did not promote a single negative Platner story until June 5, while Google News did not do so until May 31. The coverage blackout closely overlapped with the period between the first poll showing Platner ahead and the first poll showing Collins ahead after the Democratic primary.
