As Twitchy reported, the New York Times’ “deep dive” into sexual harassment allegations against presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden by former staffer Tara Reade came up clean, with the paper finding no basis to charge Biden with sexual harassment, if you don’t count his pattern of hugging, kissing, and touching (and sniffing) women who said it made them uncomfortable.

“BuzzFeed” Ben Smith is now a media columnist at the New York Times, and the Washington Examiner’s Byron York found some “weak and sometimes” laughable answers from Times editor Dean Baquet when explaining how covering the accusations against Brett Kavanaugh was different.

In NYT, @benyt asks top editor Dean Baquet some excellent questions about paper's Tara Reade coverage versus its Kavanaugh coverage. Gets weak and sometimes laughable answers. https://t.co/2vJpYv5HRr pic.twitter.com/fb3BpXxT1N — Byron York (@ByronYork) April 13, 2020

If you ask the average person in America, they don’t know about the Tara Reade case because the mainstream media has been sitting on it for a month.

So…@JoeBiden wasn’t in the public forum already…but Brett Kavanaugh was…ok… — CorpsDawg (@CorpsDawg) April 13, 2020

Biden has been in the public eye for 40 years 🤦🏻‍♂️ — Cory C ن (@Cory_Chiarelli) April 13, 2020

So Biden is not in the public forum?

Lame answer. — Freeze (@Freeze82970441) April 13, 2020

And running for President is not an important position? What planet do they exist on? — JohnnyBGood (@Nucl3ar_Johnny) April 13, 2020

Why didn't he just say the obvious? Kavanaugh is a conservative (and opposed to abortion) and Biden is a Democrat (and supports abortion). That's the difference in a nutshell. Any other explanation is a joke. — PCH Political (@pchpolitical) April 13, 2020

Bingo.

Wow that is a terrible answer. Biden is the presumptive nominee for president, that is not high profile enough to write about Tara Reade???? The election cycle is in full swing, how is it not relevant??? Just wow — Chuck (@cfiterman) April 13, 2020

Isn’ the 2020 presidential election a live, ongoing story? — BurnerAccount (@BurnerA02499797) April 13, 2020

Yes, but the Tara Reade story is only a live, ongoing story as long as the mainstream media decides to keep it that way.

Here’s a great thread from AG Hamilton from Sunday:

New York Times story about Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegation against Biden is harsher toward Trump https://t.co/yNuk5jy9ez pic.twitter.com/tXEJWw4vUd — Robby Soave (@robbysoave) April 12, 2020

Why would Trump even be mentioned in a story about a sexual assault allegation against Biden? https://t.co/TqmJyEOz73 — (((AG))) (@AGHamilton29) April 12, 2020

It's beyond parody. They basically ignored the allegation for weeks, then published a full defense for Biden that includes whataboutism. The double standard is so transparent that it's embarassing. — (((AG))) (@AGHamilton29) April 12, 2020

And I don't even agree with the Kavanaugh comparisons others are making. While the allegation here has significant weaknesses (I personally do not believe it), it is 100X stronger than the allegation against Kavanaugh. This was an actual Biden staffer! — (((AG))) (@AGHamilton29) April 12, 2020

Remember the press spent a month essentially arguing that underage drinking was evidence that Kavanaugh committed sexual assault, but a long pattern of "hugs, kisses, and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable" proves Biden's innocence. pic.twitter.com/CPGr48o8nK — (((AG))) (@AGHamilton29) April 12, 2020

Honestly, that isn't even the craziest line in the story. This line where they imply Reade filed a false police report and could face consequences is insane. Can you imagine them implying Ford or Ramirez should face consequences for a false allegation in their initial reports? pic.twitter.com/7Zdo4GqBVv — (((AG))) (@AGHamilton29) April 12, 2020

Good for @benyt for asking these ?'s, but answers are not convincing. Baquet says they wanted full story before publishing, but then says that wasn't needed for Kavanaugh because that was more public? That was public because they reported on it…https://t.co/NNq2BerySW pic.twitter.com/iUdGeOBJPs — (((AG))) (@AGHamilton29) April 13, 2020

Also, Baquet admits they edited out the end of the line about other sexual misconduct in response to complaints from the Biden campaign…. pic.twitter.com/f3uA1g8245 — (((AG))) (@AGHamilton29) April 13, 2020

“The campaign thought the phrasing … made it look like there were other instances in which he had been accused of sexual misconduct.” So they took it out.

“Electing Trump when he had ‘credible sexual assault’ accusations against him was an outrage and proves Republicans hate women etc.” “Besides offensive kisses and hugs, and oh yeah that rape accusation, they have nothing on Biden, a decent man. Biden 2020!” Same hypocrites. — GregEsq (@GregEsq) April 12, 2020

What story isn’t used to bash Trump? — Cheese Crackers (@Why45huh) April 12, 2020

Also burying the story on Easter when people are going to have other stuff going on and won’t be paying attention?That isn’t a coincidence. — Chris (@chwinburn) April 12, 2020

It’s to let us know they know Joe is guilty and they’re giving him a pass. — Laura Gadbery (@lgadbery) April 12, 2020

And to give them cover when Trump and allies say the media ignored the story. This lets the Brian Stelters of the world say "See, journalists *did* cover it!" It's pre-gaslighting. — Shane Styles (@shaner5000) April 12, 2020

It's better if you think of the NYT piece on Biden as immunization rather than an actual story. — Beorn (@Beorn2000) April 12, 2020

Well said! I can see the Biden campaign saying they have been exonerated by the NYT! — Jerry Pringle (@gepringle) April 12, 2020

Gotta even the playing field for the man. — Moe Szyslak (@PubOperator) April 12, 2020

It’s still utterly disgraceful what the media and the Democrats did to Kavanaugh with no proof of anything. But Christine Blasey Ford went public, so …

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