Network silence: ABC, CBS, NBC skip Jay Jones text scandal

When does a local political scandal become big enough to make national news

The Democratic candidate in Virginia's attorney general race is at the center of controversy

after old text messages from 2022 resurfaced. Have you heard about it? Maybe not. And that's

exactly the point. The type of media bias we're talking about today is one of the hardest to spot

because it's not what you see, it's what you don't. And we went looking for it so you don't

have to. The story that's been oversaturated on the right and silenced on the left. Welcome

to Bias Breakdown. First, some background. This is the Democratic candidate for Virginia State

Attorney General Jay Jones. And these are text messages he sent back in 2022, first obtained by

the National Review. The texts show Jones, a Democrat, texting derogatory messages about

Virginia's former House Speaker Todd Gilbert, a Republican. Some messages implied violence

such as Gilbert getting two bullets to the head. Another says Gilbert and his wife are breeding

little fascists, referring to his children. When the colleague he was texting challenged him on

language that wished harm to those children, Jones responded yes. Only when people feel pain

personally, do they move on policy? After the surfacing of these texts, Jones said

like all people, I've sent text messages that I regret and I believe that violent rhetoric has

no place in our politics. I'm so deeply, deeply sorry for what I said. I wish that it hadn't

happened and I would take it back if I could. Before the text surfaced, polls showed Jones

leading his Republican opponent by six points. After the messages came to light on October 3rd

that lead shrank to just one point. And that's the story. It's pretty straightforward. But the

media showed their political cards, not just in how they covered it, but in how they didn't

Last week, this story didn't hit the airwaves on ABC or CBS News' morning or evening newscast

And rounding out the big three networks on NBC News, it was briefly mentioned once on their Sunday show, Meet the Press

But it was only brought up when a Republican guest at the roundtable made mention of it

This week it came to light that a Democrat candidate for attorney general of the state of Virginia called for the assassination of a political opponent

called for the assassination of that political opponent's family, and there's not one national Democrat calling for him to step aside

Not one. It's disgraceful. Then you got the show host Kristen Welker even saying she believed the story would be a big one in the coming days Nira let me let you respond to that because that is going to be a big story I think in the coming days But not big enough of the story to make it in any other broadcast throughout the week

Other left-leaning outlets silent over the story include NPR, PBS, The Daily Beast

And while there was no primetime coverage on CNN or MSNBC, other shows on these two networks

did cover it. Right-leaning media were quick to criticize the mainstream media's silence

like this Fox News article pointing out the New York Times hadn't covered the story five days into the scandal

Later that same day, the Times published its first piece on the unearthed text messages

Coverage from right networks stayed within that same theme, and it flooded their airwaves

Friday afternoon, National Review political reporter Audrey Falberg published the incendiary text messages that have since upended this race

Texts showed Jones fantasizing about shooting Republican House Speaker Todd Gilbert. I think when people hear the texts, they do not believe it could possibly be real

And here we are a month after Charlie Kirk's assassination as well

And there's no desire to cover this. I thought we were supposed to do a better job of holding each other to account and turning down the temperature

Most of the corporate media view their job as existing to help out the Democrat Party with their campaigns

We know that if this were a Republican candidate, it would be leading every single news show

I'm not surprised that the mainstream media is doing this. All the talk right now about political violence, I mean, Charlie Kirk, and then these text messages are inciting political violence

Why not cover this story, given what we've seen lately with the political violence

The public's awareness of this story would vary significantly based on news consumption habits

Those who rely primarily on left-leaning outlets may have heard little, if anything, about it

While those who primarily consume news from the right probably heard this story more than once

as it's become even more prevalent after the silence from the left

We've talked about this sort of media bias before. This is known as bias by omission

It occurs when news outlets neglect to cover certain stories that don't support their political narrative

When a story like this breaks, newsrooms have a decision to make

Is it big enough to cover? Is there national relevance? Local elections and political scandals don't always make national headlines

But when you start to notice a pattern where one side of the media stays silent and the other can't stop talking about it

that when it becomes more than an editorial decision but a strategic one While this centers around a state election which narrows its scope of national relevance Virginia is largely seen as a purple state

because really, its political makeup is a pretty fair mix of red and blue, so the stakes are already

pretty high, and a story like this one could sway voters in the state. It's a negative story about

a candidate on the left and largely ignored by media on the left. It's a story that's politically

beneficial for the right and largely oversaturated on those channels. While every newsroom has the

right to make its own decisions on what to cover and what not to, when there are such blatant

patterns in who's talking about it and who isn't, that's likely not just a coincidence, but bias by

design. However, sometimes there is some crossover. Not all outlets stay in their

partisan lanes, defying patterns of bias. This happened on MSNBC when their morning show host

Joe Scarborough, didn't just cover it, but also condemned it. Coming up, an attorney general candidate in Virginia is apologizing for his texts about

a state lawmaker. We'll go through what the message has said. He'll probably be forced to withdraw from the rest and probably is doing a lot there

Scarborough also posted on X calling Jones' text disqualifying end of story

and saying these times are too fraught to mumble non-answers or political justifications

for any candidate's such violent rhetoric. Researching this story reminded me of another political scandal

when some parts of former Republican Congressman George Santos' past came to light

The New York Times reported on the false claims the congressman made about his personal and professional background

Those fabrications prompted federal investigations, which uncovered criminal activity, including fraud and money laundering, leading to formal charges

So while that case is different in many ways from this current Virginia AG candidate's past being dug up, one of the New York Times reporters who first broke the Santos story sounded off at the time on the importance of the media's role in helping to hold those in powerful positions accountable in fair media coverage

Grace Ashford told the NBCU Academy, media attention certainly does bring notoriety

but it also can bring accountability. I think the trick is remembering to ask why you're writing the story

whether it reveals corruption, criminality, or a broken system, or if it's simply for the spectacle

We control framing narrative inclusion exclusion Everyone is complicit by making these small and large decisions every day That media decision on whether a story is worth the airtime to be

included or excluded is one that deserves to be scrutinized. Because the news, when done right

and with political advocacy aside, can be a true service for the public. And partisan politics

bleeding into journalism through this form of media bias needs to be called out

and will continue to call it out no matter what side of the media is taking part in this form of selective storytelling

as we did earlier this year when it was some right-leaning media silent over a story

You may have noticed the Epstein story was almost nowhere to be found, though, on Fox News

A lot of TV hosts are terrified of what to say and how to say it because they don't want to lose their audience

and they don't want to piss off the White House. Fox News dominates cable networks and viewership

And right now, their audience is hearing very little on Epstein. Thinking about what I hope you take away from this episode

I hope this serves as an example of how the media plays a role in public understanding

The decisions you make on who you get your news from and what news you trust

it matters because you'll be informed differently depending on who is telling the story

or if they're even telling you the story at all. And that's your bias breakdown

Thank you so much for watching this week's episode. If you're new here, then welcome, stay a while

and let's chat about your thoughts on this week's story. Find us on your preferred podcast platform

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The last few weeks have felt really good for me because really the feedback has been so encouraging

Me and the team, we really appreciate you. I responded back to several of you last week

over our government shutdown story and the Medicaid and Affordable Care Act sticking point

Lots of really good and thoughtful perspectives over the story that I hadn't even thought about before

I'm hoping we can revisit that topic in a future episode based around that feedback

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Big thank you to Jack Henry this week who filled in for Ian Kennedy on our video edits

And thank you to Muhammad Ali for filling in for Ali Caldwell on our graphics

Thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you next time