The New York Times slammed Brett Kavanaugh but protected Biden. That's not how it works.

All is not fair in the game of politics and sexual assault. When you commit to making the world a safer place for women, you don't get to act on party bias. That means whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, you have to confront the fact that those in your party of choice can be the perpetrators in some heinous sexual harassment cases. However, that didn't seem too apparent to The New York Times. In an appalling move, the news outlet decided to protect Democratic Presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden by covering up his acts of sexual harassment even though they were more than eager to slam now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh for the same deed. That's not how this whole thing works, folks.

During a time when our democracy seems to be ruled by "fake news" and impatient thumbs posting on Twitter, Americans rely on the press, the fifth pillar of democracy, to filter out the noise. However, what do you do when it seems like money seems to buy out the keepers of truth? In an alarming violation of honorable journalism, The New York Times decided to delete or amend their stories about women coming forward to accuse Presidential candidate Biden of sexual harassment. Nonetheless, let's start at the beginning. Firstly, the news outlet waited until Bernie Sanders, Biden's only real contender, had dropped out of the race before publishing a rather damaging story about Tara Reade, a former Senate aide, and her allegation against Biden.

Reade accused Biden of assaulting her in 1993. Of course, as is typical with many other causes of sexual assault, no one could recall such an incident occurred while others urged that the accusation was altogether false when The Times carried out an investigation. After all, when you go after one of the most powerful men in the country, why would anyone stand with you? Unless you too have experienced the same kind of treatment, of course. Reade is one of seven women who have come forward to accuse the former Vice President of inappropriate, uncomfortable, and unwanted sexual behavior. Despite the pattern of inappropriate behavior, The Times affirmed in their since-edited article, "[We] found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden." Previously, however, their article read, "The Times found no pattern of sexual misconduct by Mr. Biden, beyond the hugs, kisses, and touching that women previously said made them uncomfortable."

Not only is the news outlet going around changing what constitutes "sexual misconduct" in order to suit their narrative, but they are placing party loyalty over the safety of women. The Times was ready to believe women and other victims of sexual harassment when it meant vilifying Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's personal pick for the Supreme Court. Why should Biden be extricated of the same criticism? As he is the Democrats' sometimes touchy-feely but happy-go-lucky uncle, of course. Most importantly, though, because he did not threaten the outlet's cash flows or media tricks like competitor Sanders did.

As journalist Jordan Chariton pointed out on Twitter, "The fact that The New York Times and MSNBC waited until Bernie Sanders dropped out to report on a sexual assault allegation against Joe Biden - one where multiple people corroborate [what] Tara Reade told them after it allegedly occurred- is disgusting. It’s media COVERING FOR their candidate." Fellow journalist Ian Miles Cheong added, "I refuse to call Joe Biden a rapist because I believe he deserves due process as much as Brett Kavanaugh and anyone else who faces such accusations - but it's very rich of The New York Times, which painted Kavanaugh as nothing short of a monster, to give Biden a special pass." If we truly want to protect women, we have to protect them from all perpetrators of sexual assault, even if some of them are funding our paychecks or may (now) be our only shot at beating Trump. Let's remember that Trump, too, denied all allegations of sexual assault against him while trying to quietly shove them under the rug.