Disgraced former Democratic congresswoman Katie Hill has been the subject of glowing media profiles, interviews, and op-eds since she was forced to resign in November 2019 following sexual misconduct allegations.
News consumers have been inundated by interviews with Hill since she left office following revelations that she had sexual relationships with campaign and Capitol Hill staffers, allegedly in violation of House Ethics rules. In the 122 days since she left office, Hill has been one of the media's favorite interview subjects, appearing on television or in print at least 19 times, or on average, once every 6.4 days. Among them:
- November 14—Interviews on CNN, MSNBC, and CBS.
- November 22—Interview with CNN's Cuomo Prime Time.
- November 24—Interview with CNN's Reliable Sources.
- December 3—Interview with CNN's New Day.
- December 6—Interview with MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes.
- December 7—Hill op-ed for the New York Times, "It’s Not Over After All"
- December 10—Interview with Daily Beast, "Katie Hill Wanted Out of Her Marriage. It Ruined Her Life."
- December 16—Interview with CNN's CNN Tonight
- December 17—Playboy profile, "A Very Millennial Scandal"
- February 5—Interview with MSNBC's All In with Chris Hayes
- February 11—Interview with HuffPost editor in chief Lydia Polgreen at the 2020 MAKERS Conference.
- February 20—Interview with ABC News's Good Morning America.
- February 21—Interview with ABC's The View.
- February 25—Interview with Elle, "Katie Hill's Next Chapter Starts Now"
- February 26—New York Times interview/plug of Hill's upcoming book, "Katie Hill, Who Quit Congress Amid Ethics Inquiry, Will Publish Memoir"
- March 2—Interview with Yahoo Finance and New York magazine profile, "After the Scandal"
The novelty of her numerous appearances and profiles has yet to lose its luster. ABC News declared Hill was "breaking her silence" in a February interview, the 14th time she has broken her silence to a media outlet, according to a Washington Free Beacon analysis.
During her appearances and interviews, the media frequently and uncritically parroted Hill's talking points that she was the victim of "revenge porn" after RedState first published leaked explicit images showing the former congresswoman in a relationship with a campaign staffer. The outlet also published text messages alleging Hill was in a relationship with a congressional staffer. During her CNN Reliable Sources interview, the chyron read, "KATIE HILL's EXPERIENCE WITH RIGHT-WING SMEARS." The closest thing to a critical question posed by CNN's Chris Cuomo was whether the former representative was wrong to resign given that "this is not the way it would have gone if [Hill was] a man." The Daily Beast wrote that Hill was one of "many of the women villainized by the right" and that Republicans "weaponiz[ed] the most sensitive aspects of her personal life against her, nearly driving her to suicide."
Many of the Hill puff pieces have also omitted damaging information that has emerged about the California Democrat since her resignation. After the husband of a Hill campaign staffer was indicted February 21 for launching cyberattacks against the former congresswoman's opponents, subsequent stories on Hill from the New York Times, Elle, and Yahoo ignored that issue entirely.
New York magazine's recent profile of Hill is one of the few critical accounts of the former congresswoman, which didn't shy away from stating Hill "violated a Me Too–era rule prohibiting members from having sexual relations with congressional staffers." Hill openly admitted to lying about the relationship in the interview. The magazine also noted that "the precise number changes" when Hill claims to have suffered sexual assaults in her adolescence, that she was in an unethical relationship with a Playboy reporter, and that she and the reporter provided "multiple inconsistencies" in their accounts of her alleged suicide attempt.