Norwegian media have gone to great lengths to protect the scandal-plagued Democratic candidate from Maine. At the same time, they manufactured a fake scandal to target FrP advisor Hårek Hansen.
Two of the world’s most used news services are reported to have systematically downplayed and withheld dozens of articles about the scandal-plagued former Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner for months, until the scandals became too big to ignore, according to a new study.
The study from the Media Research Center (MRC) reveals that neither Apple News nor Google News published a single story between November and May about Platner’s controversies, including his Nazi tattoo and offensive Reddit posts.
The two tech giants allegedly failed to promote countless articles from conservative and independent media that investigated Platner’s background during the same period, writes the New York Post.
Norwegian media have done exactly the same as Big Tech — and in some ways even worse. They completely blacked out the story of Graham Platner and his wife Amy’s trip to Norway for IVF treatment (in vitro fertilization), due to the much higher costs in the USA.
Later in the article, we take a closer look at why they likely deliberately chose to suppress this news.
MRC president David Bozell accuses the platforms of running a straight-up protection racket for Platner as long as he was seen as a potential winner against Republican Susan Collins.
“For months, while Platner looked like the Democrat who could actually beat Susan Collins, the two most powerful news apps in America buried one scandal after another,” Bozell tells The Post.
“Only when the polls shifted and he became a liability did the silence break. This had nothing to do with journalistic judgment.”
Platner’s campaign ultimately collapsed. He withdrew on Friday after two ex-girlfriends came forward accusing him of sexual assault. He strongly denies the allegations.
Like Big Tech, so too Norwegian media
Norwegian media have done exactly the same as Big Tech. Graham Platner announced his candidacy already in August 2025, and this was known in Norwegian media.
As with all other star Democratic candidates in an important election, this would normally have received extensive coverage. For example, Zohran Mamdani, whom NRK called “the rising star of the Democrats.”
Platner was also regarded as a star candidate — an everyman, a rugged oyster farmer and former Marine veteran who appealed to ordinary people on the street.
The Senate seat in Maine is held by Republican Susan Collins, who has been in the Senate since 1997. Maine is a swing state, and before the scandals exploded, Platner was surprisingly well positioned against Collins in the polls and was considered the Democrats’ best chance of winning the seat.
National Democrats, including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, invested heavily in him early on, because a victory in Maine was central to regaining a Senate majority. Norwegian media were therefore fully aware of the importance of the Maine election and of Platner.
When the story of Platner’s tattoo became known in October 2025, Nettavisen published an article in November titled “I am not a secret Nazi.” Journalist Kjetil Bortelid Mæland downplayed the tattoo: “It should be noted that the ‘Totenkopf’ in various forms was used long before World War II, including by pirates and some of Napoleon Bonaparte’s soldiers.”
After that, it went quiet in Norwegian media, even as new scandals emerged. Only last week, when it became impossible to ignore, did they report that Platner had withdrawn from the race. NRK published only two short notices on July 7 and 11, neither of which made the front page.
Platner’s IVF trip to Norway
The blackout of Platner’s scandals is one thing. But why did Norwegian media not report that Graham Platner and his wife traveled to Norway in January 2026, in the middle of the election campaign, for IVF treatment?
This should have been a perfect *feelgood* story for Norwegian media: An American politician who chooses Norway because our healthcare system is better and cheaper, and who publicly praises it to the skies. Yet it was passed over in complete silence.
Platner and his wife Amy Gertner were open about their trip and announced on social media in early January that they were taking a break from the campaign to start a family and were heading to Norway for IVF treatment.
Platner said the costs for this in the USA are astronomical. Even when adding plane tickets, it’s not comparable. The political candidate added: “Not to get political, but this is a clear sign of how deficient our healthcare system is.”
A publicly funded healthcare system was a central point in the tattooed candidate from Maine’s platform — like Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All.” In practice, this would mean a Norwegian model, just scaled up to over 350 million people — a potential bureaucratic nightmare.
In late April, the couple announced that Amy had suffered a miscarriage. This was three months after they had announced their trip to Norway for IVF, reported ABC News in Maine.
They gave several interviews to the media about their trip, and on April 10 they spoke to nationwide ABC News, where Platner praised the Norwegian healthcare system to the skies. The decisive moment was that the consultation was free. “That was the moment I knew we were going,” said Platner. “I thought: We’re going to Norway.”
ABC News portrays Platner and his wife as the perfect couple, fully aware of his dirty and repulsive past.
Norwegian media’s protection racket
But we all know that Norwegian media rarely miss an opportunity to highlight anyone who praises our country, especially the healthcare system.
So why the total silence around an American election candidate who might have given the Democrats a chance to win back the Senate?
One could argue it was about patient privacy, but neither Platner nor his wife have been reticent. On the contrary, they have been very open about the treatment and their idealization of Norwegian healthcare.
We should give the media the benefit of the doubt and assume they simply missed the story, even though they have significant resources and a broad overview of the news landscape. Nevertheless, my theory is that they knew about the trip to Norway but deliberately chose to black it out.
At that point, it was already clear that Platner was a liability, and they did not want to put a candidate from their preferred party in a bad light. Highlighting his success story with the Norwegian healthcare system could quickly become embarrassing.
So Norwegian media have acted like Big Tech and functioned as a straight-up protection service for Platner, or a *protection racket*, as MRC president David Bozell called it. But there is something even more disturbing about what they have done than what is happening on the other side of the Atlantic.
Hårek Hansen and Graham Platner
First and foremost, there is no reason why Norwegian journalists should run such a protection service for a political candidate located 7,000 km away. The fact that they do so only makes it appear even more unethical.
USA experts and journalists can stand up and talk for hours about how concerned they are for democracy and an America in free fall under Trump. But we all know that is just pretentious bluster.
They don’t care about the American people or their welfare; they just want the “right” people in positions of power. Even if he is a man with Nazi tattoos who has mistreated women and is accused of rape.
Second: When we look at the latest political “scandal” in Norway involving FrP advisor Hårek Hansen, the media’s protection of Platner becomes even more outrageous.
TV 2 journalists turned a drunken comment into a full-blown scandal, and the rest of the media followed like bloodthirsty hyenas. And the whole thing happened with no consequences from the PFU for TV 2’s breach of the Code of Ethics.
But the incident shows how Norwegian media will do everything to protect an extreme left-wing politician in the USA — with a Nazi tattoo and rape allegations — while they will break every rule that exists to destroy a Norwegian family man’s life and career simply because he is affiliated with the Progress Party (FrP).
This is not journalism. It is not even propaganda. It is pure evil.
Third, they were so intent on protecting Platner that they even passed up a potential sunshine story about the positive experience he and his wife had with the Norwegian healthcare system. Even though the omission became less significant when Amy Gertner miscarried three months later.
These are my theories, and we should of course give them the benefit of the doubt, even though they would not do the same for us.
My second theory is that this was a brilliant campaign stunt for someone who wants to promote “Medicare for All.” Go to Norway and pretend you’ve suddenly become eager to start a family.
Cynical? Yes, of course. But the guy is, excuse the expression, what we over here consider a textbook *scumbag*. And I’m not exaggerating.
They have sold their souls to the ideology
But this is the man whom the sanctimonious media are protecting. And that is a big problem. They have clearly lost their integrity, or sold their souls, just like the Democrats in America.
But it is so obvious what the media are doing, and it only seems to be getting worse and worse.
One wonders what is actually worse: half-truths and outright lies, or lies by omission. And the systematic selectivity, depending on which side of Congress they support.
We remember well the scandals surrounding Republican Representative Matt Gaetz and the broad, detailed coverage it received in Norwegian media. And not least Pete Hegseth, a 100% Norwegian-descended man, who had skeletons in his closet, but nowhere near the scale of Graham Platner.
If Pete Hegseth had been a Democrat, he would have been hailed as Norway’s proud son, and given honorary citizenship in Ål in Hallingdal, Stjørdal, Verdal, Levanger and every other place where his family has left its mark.
I used the word “evil” above, and it is a strong word. But I no longer know how else to describe it. What still surprises me is that this is happening in Norway.
The difference in how Norwegian media have treated Hårek Hansen and Graham Platner respectively tells a dark story, and it is nothing less than pure evil at its root.