Washington Examiner columnist Joe Concha bashed the New York Times for its report on Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, saying the paper engaged in misconduct.
“You have to go not one, not two, not 10, not 20, 22 paragraphs in before you get to the allegations,” Concha said on Fox News’s America Reports on Friday.
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Concha said it’s “journalistic malfeasance” to bury the lede of the article, and not show these serious allegations until later in the report.
The report, released Thursday, details disturbing accounts from several of Platner’s ex-girlfriends.
One of the women in the report, Lyndsey Fifield, recalled Platner’s unsettling behavior while they were dating, and said he was “cavalierly contemptuous of women’s emotions, of our ‘weakness.'”
Fifield fired back at the New York Times in an X post on Friday for downplaying the story.
She said New York Times journalists “twisted this into a gift to the Platner campaign. Violating the trust of his victims. Shattering the trust I placed in them with the most vulnerable story of my life.”
“Where are the stories from the other women? Where are their accusations of sexual assault? Why am I the focus? Why are there 11 paragraphs dedicated to detailing my work history (more than has been published about Graham’s by far)? Why does it say ‘nobody could corroborate’ when I offered them sources that COULD corroborate?” Fifield asked.
“Classic catch and kill scenario here from the alleged paper of record, the New York Times,” Concha said.
He argued that everything that Fifield brought to the table should have been front and center in the paper, calling it “journalism 101 in high school kind of stuff.”
Concha also agreed with Fifield’s point that many other women were not included in the piece.
“The New York Times only half put the story out there instead of going full bore on this one,” Concha said.
Concha also criticized Democrats for continuing to back Platner in Maine’s primary election, where he faces current Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
He said Democrats “want this to blow over like so many news cycles do, and hopefully Graham Platner can get over the finish line.”
If Platner wins the Senate seat, it could return control of the Senate to Democrats.
“Is it all worth it to put your integrity aside here, to put basic common decency aside, to make sure that this man, who needs more of a shrink than a Senate seat, wins this seat?” Concha asked.
“If you want to die on this hill as Democrats, you have lost the moral high ground — if you thought you ever had it — forever, if you’re going to back somebody like this.”
The Maine primary election will be held on June 9.
