Reporting the Platner Allegations

In Me Too coverage, timing is everything.

Back in April, Susie Banikarim wrote for CJR about Cheyenne Hunt, a lawyer and former congressional candidate, who played a role in surfacing allegations from several women that Eric Swalwell—a Democrat from California who was a front-runner for governor—had sexually assaulted or harassed them. Hunt—who recently founded Reckoning Action, a nonprofit aiming to combat misogyny, and has a sizable Instagram following—gave an interview to Politico at the time, describing how she had coordinated with Swalwell’s accusers, then worked with reporters to ensure their story was told with rigor, reach, and credibility. “I have a lot of fears about the blurred lines between content creators and journalists,” Hunt said. “I don’t want this to be a green light to creators who think that they should be breaking sensitive news.” Banikarim noted the wisdom in “understanding that social media influence alone would not be enough to take on a powerful politician and care for Swalwell’s accusers.” This week, Hunt’s name appeared in Politico again—now connecting reporters with Jenny Racicot, who accused Graham Platner, a Senate candidate from Maine, of sexual assault. As Jessica Piper, one of the authors of the Politico story, told me, “A story like this asks you to hold two things at once: real sensitivity toward a source who is describing a traumatic experience and real rigor in testing the account.” On Wednesday night, Platner ended his campaign.