In a piece that was supposed to be a rolling documentation of the sexual misconduct allegations that have come to light since the toppling of Hollywood Producer Harvey Weinstein, The New York Times had left out a series of accusations against numerous Democratic politicians. And on top of the blatant omissions, the timeline had gone un-updated since November 21 despite a flood of new allegations, including one Democratic Congresswoman exposing a former Democratic Congressman.
“Here is a list of such cases, which we will update periodically. The list does not include accusations against men for whom there has been no or minimal fallout,” they wrote, describing how the timeline would operate. But even given their criteria, the page was left untouched for nearly a week.
When it came to the allegations against politicians only three made the list. Republican Kentucky House Speaker Jeff Hoover, Republican Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, and Democratic Minnesota Senator Al Franken.
The most obvious person missing from the list was Democratic Michigan Representative John Conyers. The accusations against Conyers and the fact that he settled a claim for $27,000 was first broke on November 21, the same day the Times stopped updating their timeline of names. Conyers was the longest-serving member of the House, and over the weekend he stepped down as the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee as the Ethics Committee began their investigation.
If that didn’t surpass the Times’ own standard of an accusation needing more than “no or minimal fallout,” then the paper's journalists are being hypocritical. Written under the “Fallout” column for Hoover, the paper noted how he “resigned leadership position but remained in the Legislature as of Nov. 10.” And the only thing they noted for Moore was that the “Republican National Committee withdrew financing.”
Also missing were the accusations from Democratic Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette that former Democratic Congressman/former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner made unwanted sexual advances towards her. While Filner was indeed out of politics, his name should have been included because the accusations involved Congressional Representatives and because his career was sunk by similar allegations. DeGette’s accusations came the day before the Times apparently cut off their updates.
The third instance of a powerful Democrat slipping past the Times’ piece was the recent lawsuit against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. The lawsuit, which was actually reported on by the Times in a separate article, alleges Cuomo was well aware that appointee Sam Hoyt was harassing his workers and did nothing about it.
Although the claims of harassment were not against Cuomo directly, he should have been included because of the active lawsuit, his prominence within the Democratic Party, and because the lawsuit argued that he was “deliberately indifferent” to the plight of the whistleblowers. But the Times never really seem to interested the case. In a phone interview with the accuser’s attorney, Paul Liggieri, NewsBusters was told that the Times had never reached out when writing their report on the lawsuit.
It’s worth noting that Cuomo is also a rumored contender to challenge President Trump in 2020.
In addition to those unlisted Democrats, there were a plethora of others who went unmentioned by the Times. Similarly, The Daily Wire recently published a piece calling out CNN for failing to mention other Democratic sex scandals, and there notably was a lot of overlap between what CNN and the Times had failed to cover. Many of those Democrats were forced to resign their positions and two of them were arrested.
(H/T to Daily Caller Associate Editor Peter Hasson)
