Fox News anchor Howard Kurtz criticized the lack of media enthusiasm for covering someone who has accused former Vice President Joe Biden of sexual assault.
Appearing on Fox News’ “Special Report” with Bret Baier,” the “Media Buzz” anchor then called out several major media outlets for making “no on air mention” of former Senate staffer Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegations against her former boss.
Reade last month accused Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993 while employed as one of his Senate staffers. She filed a criminal complaint with Washington D.C. police last week.
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Kurtz began the segment by describing how The Washington Post and other outlets rushed to report about Christine Blasey Ford’s assault allegations against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh at a high school party over three decades ago.
The media “pounced” then, but “most news outlets remained silent when Tara Reade, a former Senate staffer for Joe Biden, alleged that he sexually assaulted her in 1993, which his campaign strongly denies,” Kurtz said before playing video of Reade describing the alleged assault.
While The Washington Post interviewed Reade last year, the outlet “did not run a story until Monday” after The New York Times ran theirs “19 days after she went public,” Kurtz noted.
The Fox News host quoted Times executive executive editor Dean Baquet as saying Kavanaugh was treated differently because “he was already in a public forum in a large way.” But with Biden, then a Democratic front-runner, they weren’t “in a heated race with the clock ticking.” (RELATED: ‘No Penalty For Petty Authoritarianism’: Tucker Carlson Blasts ‘Mediocre Politician’ Gretchen Whitmer’s ‘Power’ Grabs)
“These are tough judgment calls, but even now CNN, ABC, NBC and CBS have made no on air mention of the Biden allegations, a far cry from how they handled the harassment allegations against candidate Donald Trump,” Kurtz concluded.