Headline Roundup • November 18th, 2025
Newly Released Documents Chronicle Epstein’s Efforts to Influence Mainstream Media
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Newly released emails sent by the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein revealed communications and relationships with media professionals and journalists, prompting media coverage.
For Context: On November 12, the House Oversight Committee published over 20,000 documents from Epstein’s estate. This week, the House is set to vote on whether to force the Justice Department to release its files on Epstein’s case.
‘A Lost New York’: Shawn McCreesh of The New York Times (Lean Left bias) published an article titled “Epstein Emails Reveal a Lost New York” (though the publication later swapped out “Lost New York” for “Bygone Elite”) that chronicled a “clubby world that is all but gone.” McCreesh said the emails “are like a portal back to a lost Manhattan power scene… that once meant everything to status-obsessed New Yorkers” and “was the world that Donald Trump came out of.” The Times highlighted Epstein’s ties with key players at and/or efforts to influence coverage of himself in publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker (Left), Vanity Fair (Lean Left), Newsweek (Center), The Daily Beast (Left), HuffPost (Left), PBS (Lean Left), and USA Today (Lean Left) in an era where “print newspapers and magazines still held sway.”
‘Collaborative Relationship’: An article from National Review’s Forgotten Fact Checks (Right) column described Epstein’s relationship with journalists as “cozy” and “collaborative” and said the recently released emails reveal “breaches of journalistic ethics.” The column prominently described Epstein’s relationship with Landon Thomas of The New York Times, who left the paper in 2019 when editors found out he had solicited a $30,000 charitable donation from Epstein. Both The Times and Forgotten Fact Checks went into detail on Epstein’s collaborative relationship with journalist and author Michael Wolff. Forgotten Fact Checks noted coverage from Associated Press (Left), which interviewed media experts who said Wolff’s collaboration with Epstein violated journalistic ethics.
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Featured Coverage of this Story
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Welcome back to Forgotten Fact Checks. This week, we look at the breaches of journalistic ethics uncovered by the recent release of Jeffrey Epstein’s emails, and cover more media misses.
Emails Reveal Chummy Relationship Between Epstein, Reporters
Perhaps it should come as no surprise that Jeffrey Epstein, globe-trotting financier who mingled effortlessly with elites across politics, media, and business, would have maintained a cozy relationship with journalists.
Washington went nuts — and the White House went on the defensive — after lawmakers dumped more than 20,000 emails belonging to Jeffrey Epstein into the public domain on Wednesday. The central intrigue was the late financier’s relationship with the president, but there were other stories buried in the mass of documents.
The emails are like a portal back to a lost Manhattan power scene. Mr. Epstein’s inbox was larded with boldface names — many of them now faded or forgotten — that once meant everything to status-obsessed New Yorkers....
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