By Big Tech apparently found another Democrat worth protecting, and it shows how they will do anything to protect bad eggs.
Apple News and Google News allegedly buried unfavorable reporting about former Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner for months while he was viewed as the party’s best chance to defeat Republican Sen. Susan Collins, according to a new Media Research Center study.
The conservative media watchdog found that the two powerful news aggregators featured zero stories about Platner’s growing list of controversies between November 2025 and May 2026. During that period, conservative outlets published at least 112 stories examining Platner’s offensive Reddit posts, Nazi-linked tattoo and other damaging revelations, according to the study.
Those stories apparently became newsworthy only after Platner’s political value began to collapse.
“For months, while Platner looked like the one Democrat who could beat Susan Collins, the two most powerful news apps in America buried scandal after scandal,” MRC President David Bozell said. “Then the polls turned, Platner became a liability, and suddenly the blackout ended. News judgment had nothing to do with it.”
“Millions of smartphone users were denied the truth while Platner was politically useful and finally allowed to see it once he wasn’t,” Bozell added.
Platner, a Marine veteran and oyster farmer who fashioned himself as a populist outsider, had become the Democratic nominee in one of the country’s most important Senate races. His campaign received support from prominent national Democrats and progressives, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, as the party searched for a candidate capable of defeating Collins.
But the warning signs were not exactly hidden.
New Conservative Post reported in June that Platner had faced questions about sexually explicit messages reportedly sent to women while he was married, a Kik account connected to him and a chest tattoo resembling the Totenkopf symbol used by Nazi SS units.
Former girlfriend Lyndsey Fifield also accused Platner of repeatedly grabbing her hard enough to leave bruises and, during one argument, twisting her arm behind her back before forcing her into a bedroom and preventing her from leaving. Platner denied physically abusing Fifield and said the accusations were politically motivated.
“Throughout this campaign, I’ve been open about what was a very dark period of my life where I struggled with undiagnosed PTSD, too often self-medicated with alcohol, and was a far from perfect boyfriend,” Platner said. “I take responsibility for all of that, and wish I had been better.”
“Any characterization beyond that is false, and I believe, politically motivated,” he added.
Fifield later accused The New York Times of mishandling her allegations after reporters persuaded her to discuss one of the most painful periods of her life.
The newspaper published an investigation describing Platner’s behavior toward women as “unsettling.” It included Fifield’s allegations but also devoted significant attention to her work for conservative organizations and Republican political campaigns.
The Times stated that it could not independently corroborate Fifield’s account of the alleged altercations.
Fifield disputed that characterization. She said she provided reporters with screenshots, messages, diary entries and the names of friends who could confirm that she had discussed Platner’s alleged conduct years before he became a Senate candidate.
She also said reporters connected her with other women who allegedly had troubling experiences with Platner, leading her to believe that she would not be the primary focus of the eventual story.
“After the story went up I began to ask them… wait, 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)?” Fifield wrote.
Fifield said the resulting article became “a gift to the Platner campaign.”
“They tainted our story,” she said.
The Times did not literally kill the story. It published serious allegations against Platner, but did so in a purposeful way to downplay the accusations.
But Fifield’s account raises a different question: Did the newspaper frame the allegations in a way that made her conservative politics more important than the conduct she was describing?
That framing gave Platner and his allies an opening to portray Fifield as a partisan operative rather than a woman accusing a prominent Democrat of abuse. Many Democrats continued backing Platner even after her allegations became public.
Platner’s campaign finally collapsed after another former girlfriend publicly accused him of forcing her to have sex. Platner denied that allegation and all accusations of nonconsensual sexual conduct.
He formally withdrew from the race on July 10, leaving Maine Democrats scrambling to select a replacement.
“Because the candidate officially withdrew before 5 p.m. of the 2nd Monday in July, … his name will not appear on the ballot, and his political party may replace him,” the Maine Secretary of State’s Office announced.
Google rejected the MRC’s conclusions and accused the organization of using a flawed methodology.
“These claims are totally false and based on a completely flawed methodology. The study checked Google News once a day from a single account, ignoring the fact that Google News automatically updates throughout the day, and shows news personalized to your interests and location. You can also easily select sources you want to see more often in News and Search,” a Google spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
Google’s criticism deserves consideration. A single daily search from one account cannot necessarily capture every story shown to every user throughout the day.
But that does not fully answer the central question raised by the study.
Apple News and Google News serve as digital front pages for millions of Americans. Their algorithms and editorial decisions help determine which controversies become national stories and which remain confined to outlets the platforms consider less important.
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