If you’re a regular reader of Hot Air or any other generally conservative websites, you’re probably aware that one of Joe Biden’s former Senate staffers, Tara Reade, has accused the former Vice President of sexual assault. But if you’re getting the majority of your news from CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times or the Washington Post, the name may not even ring a bell.

Given the nature of my work, I generally have the television on for the majority of the day while I’m writing (usually with the sound muted) and I flip back and forth between CNN and Fox News, with occasional visits to our local Spectrum News channel. That way I can keep an eye on the chyron for breaking news stories and get a feel for what they’re covering. While it’s certainly possible that I missed a mention somewhere, I don’t recall seeing Ms. Reade’s name pop up on CNN for days.

And it’s not just CNN. Checking in at Memeorandum, I see there’s a category for the Reade story, but almost all of the outlets covering the story are conservative blogs with the notable exceptions of one article at Vox and another at HuffPo. But both of those articles spend more time covering the reasons why Reade’s story is “suspect” than the meat of the allegations.

Returning to CNN for a moment, it’s not as if they’re pretending Biden doesn’t exist. They just announced a town hall featuring Uncle Joe talking about the pandemic. But if they’re not talking about Reade on the air, how about on their website? As I write this on Saturday morning, there is no mention of Reade on the entire page. Granted, the pandemic sucks up a lot of the oxygen in the room, but Biden is mentioned in a number of stories they’re currently featuring.

There’s a touching video of Biden “choking up” while discussing families planning funerals. You can also read 5 takeaways from Joe’s coronavirus town hall. There’s another video of a mother asking Biden “difficult virus questions.”

A text search of the front page for Reade’s name, however, produces zero results. Well, perhaps that’s understandable given all of the virus news. Maybe if we do a site search on Reade’s name we’ll have better luck. Oops. Here’s what that search turned up. (Click on picture for full-size image.)

Not. One. Story.

I’m not saying that the major news outlets should be crucifying Biden at this point the way they tried to blow up Brett Kavanaugh. I agree with what Ed Morrissey said when first covering this story. The jury is still out on this one and both the timing of the accusation and differences between how she originally described the alleged assault and the current version raise legitimate questions. But shouldn’t the media at least be asking the questions?

Where are the calls for congressional hearings? That was apparently worth everyone’s time when Kavanaugh was on the verge of becoming a member of the Supreme Court. And now Joe Biden is on the verge of becoming his party’s presidential nominee and potentially the next leader of the free world. But we’re getting nothing but silence. Keep in mind that there was never any direct link established between Kavanaugh and his accuser, nor any witnesses who knew about her accusations contemporaneously with the alleged encounter. But Reade at least worked directly for Biden and there are coworkers who recall her telling them about it at the time.

Others bring up the fact that Reade supported Elizabeth Warren and Marianne Williamson before switching over to Bernie Sanders, suggesting her story may be politically motivated. But my immediate reaction upon hearing that is to wonder why somebody who worked directly for Biden for quite a while wasn’t supporting him, to begin with. If anything, her rejection of him as a candidate probably does more to support her claim than undermine it.

In any event, Reade’s tale isn’t the real story here. It’s the utter vacuum of MSM coverage of what could be a devastating story about the presumptive Democratic nominee that should have you worried. Clearly, the vast majority of the mainstream media doesn’t want to upset the apple cart and do anything to damage Joe’s chances of winning in November.