After a Senate staffer who reportedly worked for Democrat Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin uploaded a clip of himself performing lewd acts with another man in a Senate hearing room, corporate media outlets rushed to downplay the scandal.
Shortly after the footage leaked from a WhatsApp chat to the Daily Caller on Friday, 24-year-old Aidan Maese-Czeropski was fired from his position as a legislative aide in Cardin’s office. He responded to the blowback by claiming the criticism was homophobic.
“This has been a difficult time for me,” Czeropski wrote in a LinkedIn post, “as I have been attacked for who I love to pursue a political agenda.”
Despite the existence of both the graphic film and Czeropski’s tacit admission of guilt, corporate outlets were quick to give the ex-staffer the benefit of the doubt.
According to BBC and Politico, Czeropski was merely “linked” to the Senate sex tape.
Corporate outlets that have no problem jumping to negative conclusions about Republicans were hesitant to identify Czeropski, with CBS News hiding behind the fact that it had “not independently obtained the video or confirmed the identity of the individuals involved” despite the extensive reporting implicating the Cardin staffer. CNN‘s headline — “Senate aide out of job after purported sex tape apparently filmed in Senate hearing room” — went out of its way to remove all agency from the aide and makes him appear like the victim. NBC News sought to signal to its readers what to think about the scandal by
