Amid coronavirus chaos, the media is almost silent about sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden

Joe Biden
Afroze Fatima Zaidi


There’s never a good time for survivors of sexual assault to come forward with allegations. Especially when they’re going against powerful men. And in the midst of a global pandemic, many establishment media outlets also seem to be ignoring ongoing allegations against Joe Biden, one of the Democratic nominees for the 2020 US presidential election.

“That’s exactly why I have to keep going”

According to a report from the Hill, Biden’s latest accuser, Tara Reade, has been trying to get media outlets to report on her allegations for some time. She’s reportedly also been unsuccessful in a “fight to get Time’s Up, an organization that provides financial support for women who come forward with stories of sexual misconduct, to represent her”.

She joins a list of survivors who’ve come forward with sexual assault allegations against Biden:

 

Mainstream media silence

Reade shared her story with American news outlet Hill TV on 26 March. However, since then mainstream news outlets appear to have all but ignored the news:

In a CNN interview on 28 March, reporter Anderson Cooper failed to question Biden about the allegations:

Double standards

The irony is that when Christine Blasey Ford came forward with allegations against Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, Biden said she should be believed:

The double standards from Biden and his supporters seem to be fairly obvious:

And Elizabeth Warren’s silence on the issue hasn’t gone unnoticed either:

Moreover, some people think those offering partisan support to Biden would have reacted differently if similar allegations about Bernie Sanders had come to light. In fact, allegations of sexism against Sanders were widely reported, making the silence in this instance even more questionable:

Endorsements

In the wake of Reade’s allegations, many people have called politicians who have formally endorsed Biden to withdraw their support:

Given prior concerns about an anti-Sanders bias in the corporate media, it may come as no surprise that there’s barely any coverage of these allegations against Biden. But with the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements having gained traction, people are now using the hashtag #IBelieveTara to show their support. Let’s hope all the Democratic Party supporters who stood with Christine Blasey Ford will now stand with Tara Reade, too.

Featured image via Flickr/ Marc Nozell

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