Once again, the legacy network newscasts come together to suppress a story that would be national news had it involved a Republican candidate for office. The latest instance of selective media outrage involves the suppressed shortcomings of via Maine Democrat Senate candidate Graham Platner.
First, there were the posts. Per USA Today:
According to the deleted posts, which were first reported by CNN, Platner went by the Reddit username “P-Hustle.” In his posts, he said all police are bastards, and rural White Americans "actually are" racist and stupid, reported CNN. He also responded to a 2013 post about asking people from other races questions.
According to the Bangor (Maine) Daily News, Platner also questioned in one Reddit reply, “Why don’t black people tip?” The political candidate once worked as a bartender at Tune Inn in Washington, D.C.'s Capitol Hill.
He has since apologized for the comments he made, adding they are “not reflective at all of who I am.”
Not a peep of this aired on the legacy network newscasts, even as they spent the better part of last week being castigated for their deliberate omission of violent text messages sent by Virginia Democrat attorney general candidate Jay Jones. In fact, the Jones story only saw the light of day when the media were able to have something else to wash it out- in this case, a racist chat featuring Young republicans.
The posts were enough of a suppressed story, but then came the tattoos. Per Politico:
Democratic Maine Senate hopeful Graham Platner expressed regret over getting a tattoo that appears similar to a Nazi symbol nearly two decades ago and plans to have it removed, his latest mea culpa after a week of damning headlines over resurfaced social media posts.
Platner’s campaign sought to front-run opposition research about his tattoo — which resembles a Nazi skull and crossbones — during an appearance on the liberal podcast Pod Save America on Monday, with his campaign sharing a video of him dancing shirtless. Platner said he had no idea of any Nazi link when he got the tattoo.
Imagine the dudgeon had a Republican purple-state Senate candidate been spotted with a tattoo of a totenkopf (the notorious Nazi SS “Death’s Head”), the signature emblem of Hitler’s SS. This would be a multicycle top story on the legacy newscasts, and congressional correspondents would dutifully shove a microphone into every GOP member’s face until they take a position on both the tattoo and the candidate dumb enough to get it.
Alas, this wasn’t the case on the legacy nightlies. Viewers today heard more shutdown ragebait, and plenty about overseas aviation mishaps, but none about a highly touted Senate candidate with a D next to his name. Once and again, we are reminded that if it weren’t for double standards, there would be none at all.
