If you think you noticed a difference in the liberal media’s ferocity, or lack thereof, in pursuing the two sexual assault allegations against Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justice Fairfax (D) and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, you’re not wrong. As The Federalist senior editor Mollie Hemingway called out during an appearance on Fox News Channel’s MediaBuzz on Sunday, The Washington Post sat on the allegations against Fairfax for months while they pounced on those against Kavanaugh.
As they began their panel discussion, host Howard Kurtz noted the allegations against Fairfax were from the early 2000s, where those against Kavanaugh allegedly happened in the mid-1980s.
“From the media angle, I think The Washington Post comes out looking very poorly. They said they didn’t run with the Justin Fairfax story even though they had this information about him last year,” Hemingway responded.
Hemingway suggested that “[i]t doesn’t seem like they ran that story down hard” despite “in fact, you have a person who is making an allegation with a specific time and date and he concedes there was a sexual encounter between the two.”
“But then to run the Brett Kavanaugh allegations when there was no corroboration for any of that. And you didn't even have the specifics of a date, a location, a year, you didn’t have any corroborating evidence,” she pointed out.
Adding: “That makes The Washington Post look bad and it makes it look like that they are willing to go with allegations for political reasons.”
She had a point. The liberal media were nowhere near as gung-ho about reporting the allegations against Fairfax as they were with piling on Kavanaugh. When the allegations of a sexual assault involving Fairfax first broke on February 4, ABC’s World News Tonight hid those details from viewers by keeping them far away from their report on the blackface scandal of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam.
When Kavanaugh delivered his impassioned and emotional defense of his character in a Senate hearing, the liberal media portrayed him like a loose cannon. But when there were reports that Fairfax was lashing out at his accuser (saying things such as “f*** that b****”), all three of the liberal broadcast networks ignored it.
There was a blatant and measurable double standard in how the liberal media were covering the Fairfax scandal compared to Kavanaugh.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
Fox News Channel’s MediaBuzz
February 10, 2019
11:03:49 a.m. EasternHOWARD KURTZ: Mollie, with two accusers now saying that Justin Fairfax sexually assaulted them or raped them in the early 2000s. Do you see a difference between this coverage and the way media handled the allegations from 35-years-go against Brett Kavanaugh during those Supreme Court hearings?
MOLLIE HEMINGWAY: Yeah, in many ways. I mean, this is a sad story in its substance and there is a lot that will have to be reported. From the media angle, I think The Washington Post comes out looking very poorly. They said they didn’t run with the Justin Fairfax story even though they had this information about him last year. Because they didn’t have—
KURTZ: Because they couldn’t corroborate it.
HEMINGWAY: They didn’t have enough to go on. When, in fact, you have a person who is making an allegation with a specific time and date and he concedes there was a sexual encounter between the two. It doesn’t seem like they ran that story down hard but having said that, that's fine if they didn't run it. But then to run the Brett Kavanaugh allegations when there was no corroboration for any of that. And you didn't even have the specifics of a date, a location, a year, you didn’t have any corroborating evidence. It makes it seem—That makes The Washington Post look bad and it makes it look like that they are willing to go with allegations for political reasons.
