A former girlfriend of embattled Democratic Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner has accused The New York Times of “betrayal” and “gaslighting” in how reporters framed and handled her allegations of abuse.
Lyndsey Fifield spoke out to Fox News Digital following a bombshell report by Politico on Monday detailing separate sexual assault allegations against Platner, which ultimately forced him to drop out of the race on Wednesday night.
Fifield and another woman, Jenny Racicot, were both interviewed for a June 4 article published by The New York Times detailing Platner’s “unsettling” behavior with women. However, Fifield now argues that the paper “tainted” their accounts by downplaying critical details, focusing heavily on her personal political career, and falsely claiming her story could not be verified.
According to Fifield, Times reporters Katie Glueck and Lisa Lerer initially contacted her in April, insistently urging her to go on the record. Fifield, who dated Platner from 2013 to 2015, said she did not want to participate but was made to feel guilty that the stories of other vulnerable women would go untold if she remained silent.
When the article was published, Fifield was stunned to see 11 paragraphs focused on her work history, framing her as a “Virginia conservative who has worked for right-leaning groups.” Meanwhile, her specific claim that Platner once twisted her arm behind her back, shoved her into a bedroom, and held the door shut was buried in the 24th paragraph.
Furthermore, Racicot’s initial off-the-record account of a 2021 sexual assault—which she later told Politico was rape—was alluded to roughly 70 paragraphs deep into the piece.
“The New York Times piece … people are looking back at that with absolute horror and just saying like, ‘Holy crap, this is like terrible. This is truly gruesome what you’ve done to these women,’” Fifield said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
Fifield also revealed she had told the Times off the record about instances of “stealthing”—the non-consensual removal of a condom during sex—but initially kept it out of the public eye due to its graphic nature and her current life as a wife and mother. Inspired by Racicot going public, Fifield formally went on the record about the stealthing allegations with The Washington Post on Tuesday.
A major point of frustration for Fifield was the Times’ inclusion of a line stating it “could not independently corroborate Ms. Fifield’s account.” Fifield called that statement a lie, explaining that she gave reporters the contact information of a close friend, Emily Zanotti, whom she had confided in at the time of the relationship. Zanotti stated publicly that the Times never contacted her.
“The New York Times pulled a punch, and what ended up happening was my friend got steamrolled,” Zanotti told Fox News Digital. “My friend was intentionally steamrolled by The New York Times, and that’s terrifying.”
When Fifield panicked over the disclaimer and questioned the reporters, she said they downplayed her concerns and actively encouraged her to stay off social media, put her phone away, and go on vacation. “It was just, like, gaslighting,” Fifield recalled.
Conservative critics on social media have since accused the publication of using “catch and kill” tactics to slow-walk and neutralize the story to protect Platner’s campaign ahead of the primary election, a perspective Fifield said she now shares.
A spokesperson for The New York Times strongly rejected the allegations of political bias or deliberate suppression, standing firmly behind the journalism, according to the Portland Press Herald.
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