Broadcast networks go soft on Graham Platner’s Maine Senate scandals

Radical leftist Graham Platner easily seized the Democrat nomination for the U.S. Senate in Maine on Tuesday, despite a semi-truckload of scandal baggage. It began last year with the revelation that Platner had a Nazi tattoo on his chest, and it was not a swastika – it was a “Totenkopf,” the symbol of the S.S. troops that guarded the death camps in the Holocaust.

The broadcast networks avoided the subject of Platner and his tattoo for months. On April 22, a National Public Radio story skipped over it. So much for the show being titled “All Things Considered.” Steve Mistler of Maine Public Radio reported: “Platner’s well-documented controversies — including past offensive social media posts about sexual assault, rural white voters and the tipping habits of black people — haven’t scared off high-profile endorsements,” like those of Massachusetts Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren and others. Platner was painted as having populist momentum.

The TV networks arrived when a new scandal emerged on May 31: Platner had engaged in sexting with a number of women while he was newly married. We learned this because his embarrassed wife Amy warned campaign officials that it might become a problem, and someone leaked it to The Wall Street Journal.

The network Sunday hosts asked Democrats questions that were comically open-ended. On CBS, Margaret Brennan tried: “Does he pass the character test?” No. NBC’s Kristen Welker threw one softly: “Does Graham Platner pose a headache for Democrats?” Duh. ABC’s Jonathan Karl worried for his party: “Do you have concerns with the weight of all these controversies that it may jeopardize Democratic hopes to get that Senate seat in Maine?”

WATCH: MAINE VOTERS DIVIDED ON PLATNER AS SCANDALS SHADOW DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY

Typically, in midterm election years, the broadcast networks largely avoid covering individual candidates with one typical exception: a Republican candidate or two who can be exploited as an embarrassment, as they did with Delaware’s Christine O’Donnell in 2010, Missouri’s Todd Akin in 2012, and Georgia’s Herschel Walker in 2022. Platner doesn’t fit that mold, although he would — if he were a Republican.

On June 5, the latest shoe dropped at the networks. The New York Times reported that several ex-girlfriends of Platner identified toxic and even allegedly abusive behavior toward them.

CBS evening anchor Tony Dokoupil, who the left claims is some kind of pro-Trump prop, served up a DNC spin: “Graham Platner, if you don’t know, is an oyster farmer and the centerpiece of the Democrats’ plans to retake the U.S. Senate. He is also a changed man, he says, full of regret about his past. The trouble is that past keeps coming up.”

BROADCAST BIAS: NETWORKS LAMENT END OF COLBERT SHOW; THEY LOVE HIS ANTI-TRUMP ANTICS

On ABC, reporter Selina Wang repeated the accusations of violent behavior – grabbing shoulders and leaving marks, twisting arms – and Platner denied any violence. Wang went soft on the Nazi tattoo: it was just “a tattoo resembling a Nazi symbol,” and “Platner insists he only recently became aware of the Nazi connection.” Would anyone suggest a swastika “resembled” a Nazi symbol?

NBC was slow on the claims of domestic violence. On June 6, reporter Monica Alba concluded with the candidate’s flat denial: “Platner, while saying in the past he was not a perfect boyfriend, denies ‘anything alleging physicality.’ And, come Tuesday, is likely to become a key part of Democrats’ hopes to win back the Senate.”

The toughest network pundit was David Brooks on the “PBS NewsHour” on June 5. “The guy is a moral degenerate. The abuse of women, the sexting, the Nazi tattoo, I don’t even need to say anything beyond his Reddit posts … a pathetic empty guy who postures in a way that’s kind of repulsive.” But his counterpart Jonathan Capehart insisted Democrats needed to keep him to beat Republican Sen. Susan Collins and make life difficult for President Donald Trump.

WATCH: SHAHEEN DODGES REPORTER’S PLATNER QUESTIONS AS AIDE CREATES DONUT DISTRACTION

On Monday’s “News Hour,” NPR reporter Tamara Keith tried to spin away the scandals: “Democrats have the front-runner that they have. And I think that there are lots of nuances here.” Nuances, like a Nazi tattoo.

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On June 5, the latest shoe dropped at the networks. The New York Times reported that several ex-girlfriends of Platner identified toxic and even allegedly abusive behavior toward them.

On the morning of the primary on Tuesday, “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King announced Maine voters have “heard a lot of negative stories about Platner’s relationship with women” and reporter Caitlin Huey-Burns framed a Platner win as a “test” of “just how much voters are willing to tolerate to ensure success for their party.” Broadcast networks will heavily imply that winning a Democrat primary means the scandals have been overcome, and become tired “old news.”

After Platner won his primary, NBC’s Ryan Nobles touted Platner: “Those scandals, in many ways, seem to strengthen his bond with a Democratic base, and now he’s prepared to take his progressive message into November. … The oyster man and Marine vet has energized progressives despite facing multiple scandals.”

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ABC late-night “comedian” Jimmy Kimmel offered his own take on Platner-Trump moral equivalence. Platner won the primary handily despite “a number of embarrassing scandals, including revelations of a Nazi-esque tattoo on his body, sexting with women while he’s married, and allegations of abuse. If Democrats cannot get him into the Senate, word is the Republicans are planning to nominate him for president in 2028.”

This is the first Kimmel joke about Platner, and it’s more of a Trump joke. But broadcast comedians can always be counted on to underline the broadcast-news spin of the day. 

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