CNS Effectively Censors Gaetz Scandal

CNSNews.com loved to quote Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, because he’s so eminently quotable in pushing right-wing talking points. Some examples over the past year:

• Rep. Gaetz Introduces Bill to Deport Illegal Aliens During Pandemic 
• ‘No CHINA Act’ Would Prevent Relief Funds From Going to China-Owned Businesses (Gaetz-introduced bill)
• Rep. Gaetz Calls on AG Barr to Ground China-Made Drones Used by Our Police
• Rep. Gaetz: ‘Bad News for Joe Biden Ahead’
• Gaetz: ‘This Is a Mind Virus, and the Only Vaccine is Unapologetic Patriotism’
• Rep. Gaetz: ‘They’ll Disarm You, Empty the Prisons, Lock You in Your Home, and Invite MS-13 to Live Next Door’
• Rep. Gaetz: ‘I Would Not Trust Adam Schiff With the Secret Ingredient to My Mother’s Lasagna Recipe’
• Rep. Gaetz Calls on Florida AG to Investigate Bloomberg for Paying Off Debts of Convicted Felons to Restore Their Right to Vote
• Rep. Gaetz: ‘I Have Every Confidence We Will Expose Fraud’
• Gaetz: The Left ‘Lit Actual Flames, Actual Fires, and We Had to Put Them Out’
• Rep. Gaetz ‘Deeply Troubled at the Initial Plans We’re Seeing From the Biden Administration’
• Rep. Gaetz: Democrats Are ‘Substituting the Will of Washington for the Will of People in This Country’
• Rep. Gaetz: ‘I’d Be Concerned About Giving Joe Biden a Code to My Garage Door Opener’
• Rep. Gaetz: ‘Dr. Fauci Reminds Me of Every Bad Weatherman’
• Rep. Gaetz: ‘HR-1 Isn’t About Elections. It’s About Power’; McConnell Rejects ‘Voter Suppression’ Claims

That last article appeared on March 25, a few days before it was revealed that the Department of Justice is investigating whether Gaetz had an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old girl and whether it constituted sex trafficking.CNS was initially quick to defend Gaetz, with a March 31 article by Susan Jones that uncritically recounted Gaetz defending himself in an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show:

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), an outspoken conservative and a supporter of President Donald Trump, says he’s being smeared by The New York Times and extorted by a former Justice Department official over what he calls a false allegation of sex trafficking.

“It is a horrible allegation and it is a lie,” Gaetz told Fox News’s Tucker Carlson Tuesday night:

But Jones buried the odd exchange in which Gaetz brought up a dinner he attended with Carlson and “a friend of mine, you’ll remember her, and she was actually threatened by the F.B.I., told that if she wouldn’t cop to the fact that somehow I was involved in some pay-for-play scheme, that she could face trouble.”

And that’s the last time Gaetz has been mentioned in a CNS article. That means CNS readers don’t know that the DOJ official has denied Gaetz’s extortion claims, about reports that Gaetz showed photos of nude women he claims to have slept with, or that the House Ethics Committed has launched an investigation into Gaetz.

It appears that if it’s bad news about a conservative, it’s not news at CNS.