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The AP Avoided Porn Scandal and Warned Candidate Instead

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Sep 15, 2023
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09.15.23

Legalized Press-titution (Literally) – ASSOCIATED PRESS

Many people have been talking about the porn scandal of Democratic candidate for the Virginia State House Susana Gibson – just not many people in the press. Gibson was found to have had an account on the adult site Chaturbate, where she and her husband performed sex acts onscreen for tips. It is the kind of story that in the old days would have had the press working overtime to report on in salacious detail.

But these are the new days, and party fealty is far more important than delivering possibly disqualifying details about a candidate from the preferred party. In reporting on Gibson's story, The Daily Wire had a curious detail about the nation's largest news syndicate:

Correspondence viewed by The Daily Wire shows the Associated Press was tipped off about the pornographic content on September 5, but chose not to do anything with the story. It did, however, make Gibson aware of the videos, which she appears to have had taken down in the days after the Associated Press alerted her that they had been discovered. The outlet did not cover the videos until September 12, after it had already been reported by others.

So the AP did not think this was newsworthy, but it did think it was important enough to tip off the Democrat so she might be able to clean up her video past.

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Both Kinds of Standards – WASHINGTON POST

  • The condition of the media is such that they see more of a scandal with a candidate NOT having sex.

As the press either chooses to avoid the Gibson scandal or explain it away (The New York Times says the videos of her were "leaked" when she had over 5,000 people following her online sexcapades), there is a polar opposite in the election cycle. GOP candidate Tim Scott is an avowed Christian and has talked of his abstinence in the past, and THIS is cause for concern and inspires investigation!

Ben Terris delivers an exhaustingly long profile on Scott's love life and how he mentions having a girlfriend, yet few have ever seen this woman:

Every time my wife talks to him,” Al Jenkins, a longtime friend and current staffer, told me in 2020, “she says, ‘Who is she, and when are we going to meet her?’” Now, three years later, I had the same questions. Six friends I spoke with said they didn’t know about a woman in his life. Others never returned my calls. The campaign, of course, was well aware that I was trying to get to the bottom of Scott’s love life. They were polite, but not exactly eager to spill.

DNC PR Firm – THE GUARDIAN

Writing at The Guardian, Margaret Sullivan delivers her platform for how reporters should cover the election. Basically, it is this: You need to boost Biden for the good of the country:

The stakes really are enormously high. It’s our job to make sure that those potential consequences – not the horse race, not Biden’s age, not a scam impeachment – are front and center for US citizens before they go to the polls.

She goes into the now-tired justification of not being neutral to both sides, citing that one party is now "anti-democratic." Then this pathetic screed turns laughable when she talks about the adherence to the truth, but then goes on to say that the investigation into Biden is "evidence-free," and then touts how great the economy actually is in this country. This is just a sad display on her part.

Gilded Reframe – ASSOCIATED PRESS

  • Okay, so maybe there is evidence, but it is not, like, super-extra-good-type evidence!

Maybe it was a result of what we covered in yesterday's column about Kevin McCarthy laying out a number – but not all – of the pieces of evidence being looked at in regard to Joe Biden's financial schemes. After that stern talking to, the AP seems to have made a small but still perceptible shift in its claim that the GOP has no dirt on Biden. In their latest report, we get this adjusted claim about what it is the Republicans possess:

Republicans have unearthed no significant evidence so far of wrongdoing by the elder Biden, who as vice president spoke often to his son and stopped by a business dinner with his son’s associates. The White House maintains Joe Biden was not involved in his son’s business affairs.

Stolen Validity – WASHINGTON POST

  • The actions are troubling, but the decisions are the real puzzler.

Matthew Foldi of The Spectator has some pretty damning evidence of the Washington Post lifting content from them. While some want to say that they are merely covering similar stories, one in particular is pretty glaring. It is odd enough that you would go after an esoteric story about how frequently men think about ancient Rome in a given day, but when doing that same story and presenting it with nearly the same words, that is pretty much an ironclad accusation.

"Riffed from the Headlines" is Townhall's daily VIP feature with coverage of the deeply flawed aspects of journalism in the nation, where Brad Slager looks to bring accountability to the mishaps, malaprops, misdeeds, manipulations, malpractice, and manufactured narratives in mainstream media.