SUNDAY SHOW OMISSION ROUNDUP: Mexico, Minnesota, and (Mostly) Platner

Such is the case with the Minnesota fraud raids. These have gone largely uncovered, save for an item on NBC Nightly News. You can rest assured that the Sunday shows would be all over the feds potentially investigating a GOP vice presidential nominee (and his Attorney General) due to allegations of massive public assistance fraud. This item would run at the top of the shows, and Republicans would be dragged in for hostile interviews. However, there is no such coverage for Tim Walz, or for the ongoing fraud investigation. There are no Democrats booked with the expectation that they’ll be asked to explain allegations of fraud just six months from the midterm election. Likewise, the Department of Justice’s indictment of multiple senior government officials in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, home to the notorious cartel formerly headed by “El Chapo” Guzmán, starting with the state’s governor. Only PBS News Hour deigned to do a brief item on the indictments, but not a second to spare on the rest of the broadcast nightlies or on the Sunday shows. The clinching of the Maine Senate Democratic nomination by controversial Nazi-adjacent candidate Graham Platner. The networks didn’t touch Maine Kampf or his Totenkopf (Nazi SS “death’s-head”) tattoo with a ten-foot pole, and neither did the Sunday Shows. Except, that is, in passing by Jake Tapper as he interviewed former Congressman Barney Frank, now living in Maine. The Sunday shows have avoided talking about Graham Platner like the plague. Tapper breaks the ice- not in a panel discussion or standalone segment on State of the Union, but in a brief question to former Rep. Barney Frank. pic.twitter.com/VCLQ0C3W8K — Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) May 3, 2026 JAKE TAPPER: You live in Maine, uh, where the establishment Democratic senate candidate that you endorsed, the governor, Janet Mills, just dropped out to make way for her Progressive challenger, Graham Platner. Um, do you see that as a rejection of the Democratic establishment by voters? Why did that happen, do you think? BARNEY FRANK: Look, Donald Trump- we originally thought was a joke, and then he turned out to be very good at one thing: exploiting voter discontent. And so he won an election based on that. And since then, it's gone back to being a joke. The man is imploding. He has no program that he's seeking to adopt. I think Platner actually shares with Trump this capacity for, uh, making the most out of, out of, uh, the anger that people feel. Uh, what I'm afraid of is that he won't be able to translate that into enough votes, but, uh, I am concerned that among some in my party, there's a kind of, there has been a flavor-of-the-month tendency. So that somebody who's new and hasn't been able to do much is somehow preferred over people who understand the importance of hard work to get controversial things adopted. That’s it. No discussion of the party’s growing embrace of anti-semitism and tolerance of such candidates, or of Platner’s varied defenses of the Totenkopf tattoo and unearthed social media posts. Again, imagine a scenario where it is a Republican wearing a Totenkopf and having to explain past social media posts. There is a long history that suggests we’d never hear the end of it. All of which is a reminder that if it weren’t for double standards, there’d be none at all. Jorge Bonilla Sun, 05/03/2026 - 18:25 Marketing Timing Regular Search Engine Title SUNDAY SHOW OMISSION ROUNDUP: Mexico, Minnesota, and (Mostly) Platner CNS Commentary Off