Reid Hoffman, Autor, Unternehmer und Mitgründer der Internet-Plattform LinkedIn, spricht am 19.01.2015 in München (Bayern) bei der DLD (Digital-Life-Design) Konferenz. Auf der Innovationskonferenz diskutieren hochkarätige Gäste drei Tage lang über Trends und Entwicklungen rund um die Digitalisierung. Photo by: Tobias Hase/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images
The Epstein Files furor has sure calmed in recent months. After a period of quotidian reports and hyperventilating coverage over the most trivial details, we now see the media have been taciturn on the topic. It is not for a lack of content, but possibly due to inconvenient content.
Just as a quick callback, recall that it was the normal practice to run with speculative reports anytime someone’s name broke the surface last year. If an individual had an innocuous email exchange, or their name had been mentioned in third-person fashion, it could then be splashed that they were “in the Epstein Files.”
This led to irresponsible speculation and was used to impugn people for political purposes. But today there is little of this carnival barking. That we are on the doorstep of an election makes it a bit more curious that the accusations are not hurled with the same abandon.
And one instance can be seen where this new form of hesitation is possibly done in a protective manner. In the case of billionaire Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, it is not an example of a tangential mention being extrapolated into an overblown hit job; the man had serious connections to the sexual predator. That he can now be shown to have connections to James Talarico may explain the distancing seen in the press.
One of the more amusing aspects of the Talarico campaign has been his vocalized claim that he is avoiding billionaire donors, and that his financial support is from Texans. He said this ahead of a jaunt to Hollywood for a celebrity fundraiser. Just over a week ago, he was up in New York, Hoovering money from the coastal elites in Manhattan.
Not only is the press lax in bringing up this fiscal contradiction with the candidate, but they also avoid mentioning that a super PAC developed specifically for his campaign is driven by Reid Hoffman, one of the more directly linked Epstein Files figures.
Hoffman has a history with Epstein, as he was trying to get the man to donate big for MIT’s Media Lab. When initially exposed Hoffman excused away his connections as having taken place before realizing the predator’s history. He also called for the full release of the Epstein Files, as a form of bold claims of innocence.
Then more came to light. Hoffman was not just a name in the documents, he had visited the infamous Epstein Island. And claims of naivete were blasted into confetti, when the dates showed he flew there years after Epstein charges were publicly known.
Yet Hoffman has been operating freely despite the disqualifying connections, and last fall he set up a money cistern for James Talarico. One year ago, Hoffman launched Lone Star Rising PAC, specifically to support the Talarico campaign.
The Federal Election Commission has Hoffman listed as the primary donor, to the tune of $10 million. The financial outlay by the PAC has been expressly in support of Talarico’s campaign.
So the candidate who postures that he despises wealth and billionaires is backed by one such mogul, and it is one with a deeply troubling past. The media silence on this connection is rather profound, given the past insistence in the press that these troubling connections to Epstein were grave and severe.
But today it is a symphony of crickets from the news outlets. We are left to ponder just how silent the press would be if a Republican candidate were shown to have the financial backing of an Epstein Files figure, let alone one who had his passport emblazoned with an Epstein Island stamp.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
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