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

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00:00When does a local political scandal become big enough to make national news?

00:05The Democratic candidate in Virginia's Attorney General race is at the center of controversy

00:10after old text messages from 2022 resurfaced.

00:14Have you heard about it? Maybe not.

00:16And that's exactly the point.

00:18The type of media bias we're talking about today is one of the hardest to spot.

00:23Because it's not what you see, it's what you don't.

00:25And we went looking for it so you don't have to.

00:28The story that's been oversaturated on the right and silenced on the left.

00:34Welcome to Bias Breakdown.

00:36First, some background.

00:38This is the Democratic candidate for Virginia State Attorney General Jay Jones.

00:43And these are text messages he sent back in 2022, first obtained by the National Review.

00:49The texts show Jones, a Democrat, texting derogatory messages

00:53about Virginia's former House Speaker Todd Gilbert, a Republican.

00:57Some messages implied violence, such as Gilbert getting two bullets to the head.

01:03Another says Gilbert and his wife are breeding little fascists, referring to his children.

01:09When the colleague he was texting challenged him on language that wished harm to those children,

01:14Jones responded, yes.

01:16Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.

01:21After the surfacing of these texts, Jones said,

01:24Like all people, I've sent text messages that I regret,

01:27and I believe that violent rhetoric has no place in our politics.

01:31I'm so deeply, deeply sorry for what I said.

01:34I wish that it hadn't happened, and I would take it back if I could.

01:38Before the text surfaced, polls showed Jones leading his Republican opponent by six points.

01:45After the messages came to light on October 3rd, that lead shrank to just one point.

01:52And that's the story.

01:53It's pretty straightforward.

01:54But the media showed their political cards, not just in how they covered it, but in how they didn't.

02:00Last week, this story didn't hit the airwaves on ABC or CBS News' morning or evening newscast.

02:09And rounding out the big three networks on NBC News, it was briefly mentioned once on their Sunday show,

02:16Meet the Press.

02:17But it was only brought up when a Republican guest at the roundtable made mention of it.

02:22This week, it came to light that a Democrat candidate for Attorney General of the State of Virginia

02:26called for the assassination of a political opponent, called for the assassination of that

02:30political opponent's family, and there's not one National Democrat calling for him to step aside.

02:35Not one.

02:36It's disgraceful.

02:37Then you've got the show host Kristen Welker even saying she believed the story would be a big one

02:43in the coming days.

02:45Neera, let me let you respond to that because that is going to be a big story, I think, in the coming days.

02:49But not big enough of a story to make it in any other broadcast throughout the week.

02:54Other left-leaning outlets silent over the story include NPR, PBS, The Daily Beast, and while there

03:01was no primetime coverage on CNN or MSNBC, other shows on these two networks did cover it.

03:09Right-leaning media were quick to criticize the mainstream media's silence, like this Fox News

03:15article pointing out the New York Times hadn't covered the story five days into the scandal.

03:21Later that same day, the Times published its first piece on the unearthed text messages.

03:27Coverage from right networks stayed within that same theme, and it flooded their airwaves.

03:33Friday afternoon, National Review political reporter Audrey Falberg published the incendiary

03:39text messages that have since upended this race.

03:42Texts showed Jones fantasizing about shooting Republican House Speaker Todd Gilbert.

03:47I think when people hear the texts, they do not believe it could possibly be real.

03:52And here we are a month after Charlie Kirk's assassination as well, and there's no desire

03:58to cover this.

03:58I thought we were supposed to do a better job of holding each other to account and turning

04:02down the temperature.

04:03Most of the corporate media view their job as existing to help out the Democrat Party with

04:07their campaigns.

04:08We know that if this were a Republican candidate, it would be leading every single news show.

04:13I'm not surprised that the mainstream media is doing this.

04:16All the talk right now about political violence, I mean, Charlie Kirk, and then these text messages

04:20are inciting political violence.

04:23Why not cover this story, given what we've seen lately with the political violence?

04:27The public's awareness of this story would vary significantly based on news consumption

04:32habits.

04:33Those who rely primarily on left-leaning outlets may have heard little, if anything, about

04:38it.

04:39While those who primarily consume news from the right probably heard this story more than

04:43once, as it's become even more prevalent after the silence from the left.

04:49We've talked about this sort of media bias before.

04:51This is known as bias by omission.

04:54It occurs when news outlets neglect to cover certain stories that don't support their political

04:59narrative.

05:01When a story like this breaks, newsrooms have a decision to make.

05:05Is it big enough to cover?

05:07Is there national relevance?

05:08Local elections and political scandals don't always make national headlines.

05:14But when you start to notice a pattern where one side of the media stays silent and the other

05:20can't stop talking about it, that's when it becomes more than an editorial decision,

05:25but a strategic one.

05:27While this centers around a state election, which narrows its scope of national relevance,

05:32Virginia is largely seen as a purple state, because really, its political makeup is a pretty fair

05:39mix of red and blue, so the stakes are already pretty high, and a story like this one could sway

05:46voters in the state.

05:48It's a negative story about a candidate on the left, and largely ignored by media on the left.

05:55It's a story that's politically beneficial for the right, and largely oversaturated on those channels.

06:02While every newsroom has the right to make its own decisions on what to cover and what not to,

06:07when there are such blatant patterns in who's talking about it and who isn't,

06:12that's likely not just a coincidence, but bias by design.

06:17However, sometimes there is some crossover.

06:20Not all outlets stay in their partisan lanes, defying patterns of bias.

06:25This happened on MSNBC, when their morning show host, Joe Scarborough,

06:30didn't just cover it, but also condemned it.

06:34Coming up, an attorney general candidate in Virginia is apologizing for his texts about a

06:39state lawmaker.

06:40We'll go through what the message has said.

06:41He should probably be forced to withdraw from the race, and probably is doing a lot there.

06:47Scarborough also posted on X, calling Jones' text disqualifying end of story,

06:53and saying these times are too fraught to mumble non-answers or political justifications

06:59for any candidate's such violent rhetoric.

07:02Researching this story reminded me of another political scandal,

07:06when some parts of former Republican Congressman George Santos' past came to light.

07:11The New York Times reported on the false claims the congressman made about his personal and

07:16professional background.

07:17Those fabrications prompted federal investigations, which uncovered criminal activity,

07:22including fraud and money laundering, leading to formal charges.

07:26So while that case is different in many ways from this current Virginia AG candidate's past

07:31being dug up, one of the New York Times reporters who first broke the Santos story

07:37sounded off at the time on the importance of the media's role in helping to hold those

07:43in powerful positions accountable in fair media coverage.

07:47Grace Ashford told the NBCU Academy,

07:50Media attention certainly does bring notoriety, but it also can bring accountability.

07:56I think the trick is remembering to ask why you're writing the story, whether it reveals

08:00corruption, criminality, or a broken system, or if it's simply for the spectacle.

08:06We control framing, narrative, inclusion, exclusion.

08:11Everyone is complicit by making these small and large decisions every day.

08:16That media decision on whether a story is worth the airtime to be included or excluded

08:21is one that deserves to be scrutinized.

08:24Because the news, when done right and with political advocacy aside,

08:29can be a true service for the public.

08:31And partisan politics bleeding into journalism through this form of media bias needs to be

08:38called out.

08:38And we'll continue to call it out no matter what side of the media is taking part in this

08:43form of selective storytelling.

08:46As we did earlier this year when it was some right-leaning media silent over a story.

08:51You may have noticed the Epstein story was almost nowhere to be found, though, on Fox News.

08:57A lot of TV hosts are terrified of what to say and how to say it because they don't want

09:01to lose their audience and they don't want to piss off the White House.

09:03Fox News dominates cable networks and viewership.

09:07And right now, their audience is hearing very little on Epstein.

09:11Thinking about what I hope you take away from this episode,

09:14I hope this serves as an example of how the media plays a role in public understanding.

09:18The decisions you make on who you get your news from and what news you trust,

09:24it matters because you'll be informed differently depending on who is telling the story

09:29or if they're even telling you the story at all.

09:32And that's your bias breakdown.

09:35Thank you so much for watching this week's episode.

09:38If you're new here, then welcome.

09:39Stay a while.

09:40And let's chat about your thoughts on this week's story.

09:43Find us on your preferred podcast platform wherever you like to listen.

09:46You can find me in the comments section of our episode posted to YouTube.

09:50And we're starting to get more traction on Spotify.

09:53So I see you as well.

09:54And I'll reply back to some of your questions or viewer feedback

09:57on YouTube and Spotify after our episodes drop.

10:01The last few weeks have felt really good for me because really the feedback has been so encouraging.

10:06Me and the team, we really appreciate you.

10:09I responded back to several of you last week over our government shutdown story

10:13and the Medicaid and Affordable Care Act sticking point.

10:17Lots of really good and thoughtful perspectives over the story that I hadn't even thought about before.

10:23I'm hoping we can revisit that topic in a future episode based around that feedback.

10:28And remember, any sort of like or thumbs up or comment or rating,

10:32anything like that that you can give us.

10:34Big thank you to Jack Henry this week who filled in for Ian Kennedy on our video edits.

10:44And thank you to Muhammad Ali for filling in for Ali Caldwell on our graphics.

10:49Thank you so much for watching.

10:52And I'll see you next time.

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