Networks End AM/PM Blackout on ‘Oyster Farmer’ Platner, What ‘Some Say’ Is Nazi Tattoo

Curtis Houck
June 1st, 2026 4:24 PM

Text to Speech

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After the Sunday morning talk shows broke the dam on the broadcast network-wide blackout of coverage on Maine Democrat senatorial candidate Graham Platner and his umpteen scandals, Sunday’s NBC Nightly News and the Monday morning shows of ABC, CBS, and NBC covered the “fresh controversy” hitting “one of the most-talked-about candidates in the midterms” who’s “critical to Democrats’ hopes of taking back power[.]”

The networks went into the sordid details of his reportedly sexually explicit texts to as many as a dozen women early in his marriage, but they sought to assist “oyster farmer” Platner in ignoring a number of scandals and minimizing the damage from others. That included downplaying that Nazi tattoo as one “some say resembles a Nazi symbol.”

Sunday’s Nightly News featured anchor Hallie Jackson announcing “a growing political controversy involving the Democrat running for one of the most closely watched Senate seats in the country[.]”

Correspondent Julie Tsirkin fretted Platner’s marriage with Amy Gertner is being “scrutinized after Platner’s former campaign manager, Genevieve McDonald, said at the start of Platner’s insurgent Senate bid, Gertner told her her husband had sent sexually explicit texts to other women, and that she feared it could eventually hurt his campaign[.]”

Tsirkin leveled quite the understatement considering this was the first Platner story on Nightly News: “The texts are the latest in a string of controversies for the veteran and oyster farmer, hoping to defeat incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins in November.”

Speaking of stories none of the networks mentioned on Sunday or Monday was the fact that Platner is anything but working-class or simply an “oyster farmer” because not only did his rich father loan him money to buy a house, but Platner attended an elite boarding school, and his oyster farming is bankrolled by a fellow spoiled rich kid.

Tsirkin was the only network correspondent across the four reports thus far to mention that “Platner once used the messaging app kik,” yet skipped out on explaining that it’s a known app for child predators. Our friend Tim Rice at the Daily Wire explained that in detail here.

Tsirkin finally arrived at the Nazi tattoo, explaining, “Platner also faced backlash last fall over this tattoo...historically linked to Nazi symbolism, which Platner says he didn’t know at the time.”

She also alluded to his hate-riddled Reddit profile: “Years ago, Platner also posted online criticizing police, suggesting victims of rape should ‘take some responsibility for themselves’ and allegedly using anti-gay slurs.”

Tsirkin concluded on a hopeful note for her fellow leftists: “Platner so far is not losing support among his voters. A new poll conducted before these latest revelations actually show Platner surging ahead of Susan Collins by nine points.”

Moving to Monday’s Today, NBC co-host Craig Melvin announced “fresh controversy is swirling around” Platner before Capitol Hill correspondent Ryan Nobles embarrassingly went to the mat for the “oyster farm and combat veteran” by downplaying the SS Death’s Head tattoo as something “some say resembles a Nazi symbol”:

Fretting he’s been “battered by a new scandal” of sexting with women who weren’t his wife, Nobles explained: “[I]n recent months, Platner has been dogged by other questions about his fitness for office, including old social media posts, where he shared inflammatory views about sexual assault.”

Nobles joined Tsirkin in giving liberals hope everything will be fine, citing polls showing him up big. Left unsaid: The same went for then-Democrat Sara Gideon in 2010, but Collins won by nearly nine points.

Over on ABC’s Good Morning America, liberal potted plant Mary Bruce cued up fellow Washington-based correspondent Jay O’Brien by saying Platner was “fighting new claims about his personal conduct.”

O’Brien laid out the predicate for the left to still back Platner, calling his race “one of the most closely watched races...critical Democrats’ hopes of taking back power here on Capitol Hill.”

He said the “rising Democratic star” Platner was “weathering yet another controversy” in the form of “sexually explicit messages with as many as a dozen women,” which Platner and Gertner insist is no one’s business.

Incredibly, O’Brien also held him up as some sort of Boy Scout and explained away the Nazi skull-and-crossbones as having “resembl[ed] a Nazi tattoo” the candidate claims “he drunkenly got...while on leave” in 2007.

“Platner, who said he didn’t know the tattoo symbolism, later covering it up with a new design in October,” he added.

Monday’s CBS Mornings was the most unequivocal. Congressional correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns said “Democrats have been counting on this popular, progressive Graham Platner” to gain the Senate majority, so this “new controversy” has “divid[ed] Democrats.”

Huey-Burns contrasted Platner’s hunky dory campaign video — “featuring the oyster farmer on the back of his boat...and walking with his wife” — alongside the reports of what many would deem infidelity and “questions about now-deleted Reddit posts, in which he called himself a ‘communist’ and asked, ‘why don’t Black people tip?’”

On the tattoo, we’ll give credit to Huey-Burns for being the most direct in calling it “widely recognized as a Nazi symbol.” She also shouted out another Reddit post in which he said women need to “act like an adult” if they want to avoid being raped.

But, like the others, she gave the liberal viewership good news: “[E]ven after those past controversial statements, Platner continued to lead in the polls.”

All told, they straddled the line between outrage and damage control, perhaps because Maine election law would allow Governor Janet Mills (D) — who dropped out last month but remains on the ballot — to replace Platner as late as July 13 and over a month after their June 9 primary.

To see the relevant NBC transcript from May 31, click here. To see the relevant transcripts from June 1, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).

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