I have said from the start that this allegation from Tara Reade against Biden is about corporate media bias, and particularly CNN, MSNBC, the Washington Post, and the New York Times, as the bastions of corporate media liberals and NeverTrump conservatives--elitists all. There is no doubt in my mind that, if Reade had made this allegation against Bernie Sanders, we would have seen Tara! Tara! Tara! at all these outlets--and every damning bit of information against Reade (fraud, Putin-love, etc.) would have been greeted with attacks on the person raising those issues, not poor Tara, the "victim." I have consistently said we should be far more careful to examine circumstances, and to ask tough questions of the accused and accuser, especially after a number of years have gone by, and to ask for corroboration pro- and con regarding the accused and accuser. But, that was not the standard the National Organization for Women, corporate media "feminist beat" writers, and politicians in the Democratic Party of recent vintage have given to any number of men. Suddenly, though, we have to defend Joe Biden with all the arguments we were previously told we should never make against any woman accuser.
When people say, What about Trump? I respond Trump is not relevant to this point made above. We already know Trump, and Republican politicians, media, and voters have no credibility on this subject. Also, unlike Biden, Trump has a pattern of at least four women who have made the very type of allegation of grabbing women's private parts, and Trump's own admission on the Access Hollywood show tape (also contained as a link within the previous link).
Again, though, what I am trying to focus on, and it is stunning to me how few understand me when I try to say this, is the hypocrisy from all these players in the Republican and Democratic Parties, and their media allies. Here is a very good National Review op-ed (I know, National Review and me have been sorta friendly lately for their great attacks against Trumpist lies regarding the coronavirus) regarding Reade's allegations and Democratic Party hypocrisy, especially compared to Dr. Ford's allegations against Kavanaugh. The op-ed reminded me how Dr. Ford could not recall, and was not consistent, about precisely when or where the incident with Kavanaugh and his buddy took place. See this one sided take on Dr. Ford, but one that we can readily identify in style as to how Reade's allegations are being discussed among Democratic Party stalwarts, such as this ex-prosecutor writing in USA Today about Reade. Ford's inability to be consistent about where and when was on top of her having offered no corroborating evidence from any witness, other than her psychologist or psychiatrist starting in 2012, decades after the event. One may ask why Dr. Ford didn't come forward when Kavanaugh had sailed through to become a judge on the second highest court in the land, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. I know that is not the same as a Vice President, but surely she ought to have heard about that or heard his name, as that does make some news. The NR op-ed does a good job (not everywhere, but certainly on everyone but AOC, which was a stretch) of showing Democratic Party hackery in their rallying around Biden, who is rarely if ever questioned as to his lies over the years at the establishment media, as one tries to make sense of Reade's allegation.*
However, here is right-wing, Republican operative and partisan, Mona Charen, with an op-ed (which the NR article linked to, showing great integrity on the part of the NR writer) showing Republican mendacity and hypocrisy regarding the Tara Reade allegations. She, at least, is making a more consistent case because she was a vociferous defender of Kavanaugh, and has been a major opponent of the entire "believe women" premise, to a point where I have felt like more of a feminist than Charen for decades--I have read Charen for over a quarter century.
I just wish people would stop trying to explain to me why we should not believe Tara Reade. I get that Reade's allegation merits skepticism. What these people don't get is how all these people who screamed for believing Dr. Ford against Kavanaugh, and continue to scream against Trump, are suddenly using the very type of arguments they said nobody should ever use against an accusing woman. I didn't buy into that standard then, and I don't buy into it now. What I also consistently say is corporate media--whether FoxNews, AONN, MSNBC, CNN, Washington Post, Washington Examiner, NY Times, NY Post, etc.--is elitist and corporatist, and that media is not our friend. That media can bury or exult us, depending upon whether the pooh-bah who run it like you or not. The sooner we as citizens get this, the better off our Republic will be.
* And yet, regarding Dr. Ford's allegation against Kavanaugh, I ended up believing Ford because Kavanaugh had so pathetically lied about the meaning of the various sexual innuendos in his yearbook, and his drunken sprees and black outs, and showed no sympathy for Ford at all--or the one other woman, who was clearly seen by the football players as "loose"--and who had no idea she was seen that way, which hurt her terribly in a public spotlight. Biden's responses included some word salad, par for his course, but he looked a lot better than Kavanaugh in his denials, and again, the Reade allegation is very different from every other woman, and Reade's own previous statements just last year, as to Biden. But those people who she confided the sexual assault story in the 1990s cannot be just ignored, either, unless one says, maybe she was making that up for sympathy back then. Also, while Biden lies about various issues and events, I don't see anything close enough to the allegations, unlike with Kavanaugh. It is, therefore, a house of mirrors--and it is why I am focused far more on the hypocrisy in standards and the way corporate media did its best to bury the story for so long. The difference between now and a decade or so ago is, but for, social media and YouTube, the story would have stayed buried.
