My RedState colleague Bonchie wrote over the weekend about the ridiculous suggestion made by the New York Times editorial board that the Democratic National Committee appoint an “unbiased, apolitical panel” to conduct an investigation into Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegations against their presumptive 2020 presidential nominee Joe Biden.

Just to recap for those who missed it, here’s what the paper had the audacity to publish (bolded emphasis added):

His campaign, and his party, have a duty to assure the public that the accusations are being taken seriously. The Democratic National Committee should move to investigate the matter swiftly and thoroughly, with the full cooperation of the Biden campaign.

[…]

While [Biden’s political concerns about his sealed University of Delaware records are] understandable, this concern is not prohibitive — and Mr. Biden’s word is insufficient to dispel the cloud. Any inventory should be strictly limited to information about Ms. Reade and conducted by an unbiased, apolitical panel, put together by the D.N.C. and chosen to foster as much trust in its findings as possible.

Even other journalists, like Axios’s Jonathan Swan, thought it was nuts:

I’ve seen some spectacularly stupid stuff from NYT ed board but this might take the cake. https://t.co/2ZnoBb6iEi

— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) May 3, 2020

Is this satire? “unbiased, apolitical panel, put together by the DNC” https://t.co/2ZnoBb6iEi

— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) May 3, 2020

Nope, Mr. Swan. This is standard operating procedure for the same paper that admittedly altered their original report on Tara Reade’s allegations because the Biden campaign complained about how it made them look.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) caught wind of the paper’s advice to Biden, and called them out on it:

Amazing Freudian slip from NYT. It’s the same principle as Bloomberg media saying “we won’t investigate Mike Bloomberg as a candidate, because he’s our boss.” https://t.co/wcKW2sjb8W

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 3, 2020

It’s who they are. They don’t even pretend anymore. https://t.co/iKLiP3rjR4

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 4, 2020

They are Dem hacks, not journalists. Imagine this NYT editorial: “allegations have arisen that President Nixon was behind the break-in at the Watergate. The media cannot investigate. We believe the Committee to Re-Elect the President should launch a ‘thorough’ investigation.” https://t.co/iKLiP3rjR4

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 4, 2020

This is a rather remarkable turn of events, if you think about it.

It took the New York Times three weeks before they first reported on Reade’s claims, and after that, other national media outlets followed – but relied largely on the NYT’s reporting (and the WaPo’s, which happened soon after the NYT’s). Once Biden himself went public and then it was later pointed out that the campaign clearly expects the media to be the ones doing the heavy lifting in exonerating him, the NYT pushed back – by essentially saying the DNC should be investigating its own nominee.

This is a rather revealing and candid look at media outlets and Democratic campaigns trying to coordinate strategy with how a damaging story is going to be covered and how each side should handle it on their end. I have no doubt this has happened thousands of times behind the scenes with the public not having a clue about it.

Now the public is a witness to the concerted efforts by an allegedly objective media outlet working in concert with a major Democratic national campaign in how to frame and handle a story. Hate to say we told ya so, but …

(Hat tip: Twitchy)