SPIN·DETECTOR

How the coverage framed it

The Boston Globe's headline took a measured, subject-centered approach, describing how an "aide who had affair with Gavin Newsom 20 years ago details her experience" — language that positions the story as a personal account without editorial coloring. The New York Post, occupying the right end of the spread, ran two headlines that leaned into sensationalism and political implication. One used "steamy" and "cringeworthy detail" to amplify the scandal's salacious elements, while a second introduced Kamala Harris via the phrase "secret advice," a construction that carries conspiratorial undertones and widens the story's political reach by linking multiple prominent Democrats to the affair. The 2.5-point bias spread here is meaningful: the left-leaning outlet treated this as a straightforward personal narrative, while the right-leaning outlet deployed tabloid language and guilt-by-association framing to heighten embarrassment for Democratic figures.