Evening Newscasts Hide The (D) In Epstein-Linked Democrats

On Friday, unsealed court documents named former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and former Clinton cabinet official and ex-New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson as among those who allegedly had sex with an underage victim of Jeffrey Epstein. But while all three evening news broadcasts covered the case, one thing was missing: any hint that those two men are Democrats. It’s a trend that NewsBusters has documented before, as scandal-tarnished Democrats are often detached from their political party, while Republicans in similar circumstances are properly identified. In this case, both Mitchell and Richardson have unequivocally denied the allegations, which were contained in a previously-sealed civil lawsuit brought by Virginia Roberts Guiffre against Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell. But that didn’t stop the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts from mentioning them both by name in five different broadcasts since the news broke on Friday — they just didn’t mention that they were both Democrats.