The Tennessean and its politics reporter Vivian Jones published paired profiles of Republican Matt Van Epps and Democrat Aftyn Behn on Thursday. On the surface, they follow the same template: biography, work history and issue positions. But read together, they reveal a well-worn pattern in the paper’s political coverage.
Everyone in Tennessee knows The Tennessean leans left. That is not a secret. But these two pieces, released just as early voting began, offer a clear snapshot of how that lean shows up in real time. Jones cannot write overt opinion columns, so the framing lands in the soft spaces: word choice, narrative structure and which details are presented as virtues or vulnerabilities.
The contrast begins with the headlines themselves. Van Epps is introduced as coming from “a wealthy Cleveland suburb,” a framing that cues privilege, outsider status and distance from Tennessee identity. Behn is introduced as “a lifelong Girl Scout,” evoking service, innocence and community-minded values. Those choices are editorial signals.
Inside the Van Epps profile, the pattern continues. Jones highlights the points most likely to raise doubts among moderate and conservative voters: his Ohio background, his “state government bureaucrat” years, his involvement in Tennessee’s COVID-19 response, his alignment with President Donald Trump and the “billionaire-funded PACs” that backed his primary campaign. All of these facts are real, but the emphasis is selective, and the sequencing guides the reader toward a specific impression of Van Epps as a privileged transplant, a bureaucratic insider and a Trump-aligned candidate buoyed by wealthy out-of-state interests.
Behn’s profile moves in the opposite direction. Her more polarizing attributes — her role in Indivisible, her protest arrests and her theatrical stunts such as dressing as “Dianetoinette” — are framed as proof of conviction and courage. Her background is rendered in warm, empathetic terms: working-class Knoxville roots, parents scraping together money for school, Girl Scout values and a decade of community organizing. The narrative softens traits that critics see as radical activism, recasting them as moral strength and “fighter for the underdog” energy.
The key point is not that either profile contains factual error. It is that the treatment is consistently asymmetrical. In Jones’ telling, Van Epps’ challenges are foregrounded and his strengths are filtered through skepticism, while Behn’s vulnerabilities are reframed as virtues and her narrative as aspirational. The two articles could have been mirror-image introductions. Instead, they read like a soft contrast piece: flattering one candidate while giving the other a polite but pointed sanding.
The Tennessean is free to be a liberal paper. It always has been. What frustrates readers is the refusal to state that plainly while publishing coverage that clearly reflects that identity. The side-by-side profiles make the tilt obvious without acknowledging it. If the paper wants to champion Behn’s candidacy, it can do so openly. What Tennesseans do not need — and can easily see through — is the performance of neutrality layered over a predictable editorial slant.
Brandon Windsor is the Editor & Publisher of TNPOLITICO.
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