The House Ethics Committee made news Friday by reprimanding Democrat Rep. Ruben Kihuen, accused of sexual harassment, and Republican Rep. Mark Meadows for his handling of sexual harassment by an aide. The resulting coverage from the New York Times and CNN was a classic example of the double standards the media applies to Democratic and Republican scandals.
Both scandals were covered in “House Hard-Liners’ Leader Rebuked on Aide’s Conduct” by Catie Edmondson. Notice the headline emphasized the “hard-liner” Republican’s indirect involvement, while ignoring the actual harassment allegation against his Democrat counterpart, Mr. Kihuen, who decided not to run for re-election.
The Times found the political lean of Meadows relevant for some reason, and used its usual unflattering labels in the headline and text.
The House Ethics Committee issued a rare letter of reproval on Friday to Representative Mark Meadows, Republican of North Carolina and chairman of the hard-line Freedom Caucus, for mishandling sexual harassment allegations against a top aide, after complaints from six female staff members that his former chief of staff frequently engaged in unwanted touching and stared down their blouses.
The committee faulted Mr. Meadows for failing “to take prompt and decisive action to deal with the alleged sexual harassment” by the aide, Kenny West, who was dismissed from the office in 2015. Although Mr. Meadows banned Mr. West from his Washington office, curtailed his responsibilities and forbade him to contact female employees, he improperly continued to compensate Mr. West for four months until firing him, committee investigators found.
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The report continued a year of reckoning on sexual misconduct that swept out lawmakers and staff members accused of improprieties and cast an unwelcome and unflattering spotlight on Mr. Meadows, an influential conservative. His office did not respond to a request for comment.
The Times snuck in the Democratic alleged harasser as an oh-by-the-way afterthought, starting in paragraph 10 of a 13-paragraph story whose headline doesn’t even mention him -- clever, if your intent was to hide Democratic misdeeds while still technically covering them.
The committee also released a report on Friday reproving Representative Ruben Kihuen, Democrat of Nevada. Mr. Kihuen, a freshman lawmaker, did not seek re-election after Buzzfeed News reported that he had repeatedly harassed and made sexual advances toward his finance director. Two other women, one an aide, the other a lobbyist, testified before the committee that Mr. Kihuen made repeated unwanted physical and verbal advances toward them and, in one case, suggested “through the use of emojis” that they make a sex tape together.
The headline over a CNN report from Friday afternoon took a different angle but was even more misleading: “House Ethics Committee chides Meadows, Kihuen over sexual harassment allegations” by MJ Lee and producer Ashley Killough.
The misleading continued in the text, conflating Republican Meadows, who is not accused of sexual harassment, with Democrat Kihuen, who is:
The House Ethics Committee admonished two male lawmakers Friday related to investigations of alleged sexual harassment.
Republican Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina was cited for "failure to take prompt and decisive action to deal with the alleged sexual harassment in his congressional office" and Democratic Rep. Ruben Kihuen of Nevada for making "persistent and unwanted advances towards women who were required to interact with him as part of their professional responsibilities."
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The ethics committee has issued its final report on Kihuen, who did not seeking re-election, and who has been accused by three women of "unwanted physical and verbal advances towards them between 2013 and 2017," according to the report.
"Specifically, the Committee found that Representative Kihuen made persistent and unwanted advances towards women who were required to interact with him as part of their professional responsibilities," the report states.
Alyssa Farah, press secretary for VP Mike Pence, responded to the bad headline on Twitter:
This headline is misleading -- so let me clear it up: Meadows never sexually harassed anyone. His former staffer did. I know, I am 1 of the women in the report. I respect the Ethics Cmte but my experience was that Meadows had my back, took me at my word, & respected & protected me
