Sex Scandals

So-called independent talk radio host and CNN host Michael Smerconish made a fool of himself on Thursday afternoon’s CNN Newsroom, arguing that he’s “not convinced” Democratic Senator Al Franken (Minn.) actually groped KABC Radio host Leeann Tweeden because “[t]here are shadows behind his fingers.”

Following Minnesota Senator Al Franken announcing his resignation on Thursday amid a series of sexual harassment allegations, CBS News special coverage of the lawmaker’s departure lamented what a “big blow” it was for the Democratic Party to lose someone with such a “nationwide progressive profile.” Anchor Bianna Golodryga even grieved “the end to a potentially storied career.”

During NBC’s Wednesday special coverage of President Trump’s White House address, anchor Lester Holt also covered breaking news about a growing list of Democrats calling on Minnesota Senator Al Franken to resign amid sexual harassment allegations. Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd hoped the move would help the Democrats regain the “high ground” on the issue. 

Despite two hours of available air time, ABC’s Good Morning America on Wednesday skipped a damning New York Times story with a bombshell claim: Hillary Clinton, during the 2016 presidential campaign, was told that Harvey Weinstein was a rapist, but still took his donations and raised money off him. 

The shocked faces at NBC and in the media last week claiming "nobody knew" about Matt Lauer's harassment and abuse of women became impossible to believe Tuesday evening. That's when Brian Flood at Fox News, partly cribbing from a still-available October 2008 story at the Village Voice, revealed that a celebrity roast that month in Lauer's honor "left little doubt that Lauer’s colleagues (and…

On Tuesday, Democratic Congressman John Conyers (Mich.) announced his retirement following a flood of sexual harassment charges. Also in the world of sexual harassers: Fed up with Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake sold out his supposedly conservative principles and donated $100 to Moore’s liberal opponent. During ABC’s World News Tonight, the network…

Listening to liberal journalists denounce Roy Moore, Al Franken and John Conyers, you’d think the media had zero tolerance for politicians with a known history of sexual misconduct. But the plain truth is the media have been complicit in normalizing, even justifying, such behavior for decades – if it helped protect the cause of big government liberalism.

Matt Lauer. Charlie Rose. Bill O’Reilly. Mark Halperin. Any one of those guys is just like the others in two important and intertwined ways, suggested Salon’s Marcotte on Wednesday: each is an alleged sexual harasser who has lost at least one high-profile media gig as a result, and each had a sexist fixation on Hillary Clinton’s “nothing-burger” e-mails.

According to NBC sources who talked to Vanity Fair on Monday, disgraced former Today show host Matt Lauer fought against the network’s recent decision to fire the morning show’s longtime booker Matt Zimmerman over sexual harassment allegations. Zimmerman’s firing came only week’s before Lauer himself was terminated by NBC following similar accusations.

As Wednesday’s Morning Joe was just starting the second hour of its broadcast, the news broke that Matt Lauer had been fired from NBC for his “inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.” The MSNBC morning show’s panelists went out of their way to praise Lauer as a man of “class” and “dignity” who was a “loved” “mentor” and “friend” to those who have worked for the Today show, where Lauer was…

The English poet of the Middle Ages, Geoffrey Chaucer, is generally credited with coining the phrase that has been updated in modern English to read, "better late than never." It means to do something or to arrive later than expected may not be good, but it is better than not at all. That may not be true in the case of former President Bill Clinton's enablers and apologists for his sexual…

Just three days after running a "Style" story celebrating the sexualizing of pre-pubescent boys lathered in makeup, The New York Times gave precious space to an op-ed which told readers that the "Unexamined Brutality of the Male Libido," i.e., another phrase describing "toxic masculinity," is creating a "crisis." Actually, it's been examined and addressed by civilizations and cultures for…

Nancy Pelosi received near-universal condemnation for her comments on Sunday’s Meet The Press when she praised accused sexual harasser and fellow Democratic House Representative John Conyers as an “icon.” Even CNN’s Chris Cillizza, who is not exactly pro-Republican, called Pelosi’s remarks “catastrophically bad.” And yet, on Monday’s Morning Joe, co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski were…