News­Busters Pod­cast: A Rerun of the Cor­rupt Sen­a­tor From New Jer­sey

Sen. Bob Menen­dez, Demo­c­rat of New Jer­sey, is once again in legal trou­ble for cor­rup­tion. So far, the media atten­tion is more intense than the last go-round dur­ing the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion. What will hap­pen lead­ing up to his next Sen­ate cam­paign in 2024?
Join­ing the show to dis­cuss the sen­a­tor if Kevin Tober, News­Busters night­ly news ana­lyst and native of Ocean Coun­ty, New Jer­sey. We will ask our­selves some ques­tions: How much cov­er­age of this Menen­dez scan­dal? How much do they use the word “Demo­c­rat” to describe him? Or do they “Hide the D” as usu­al? And then there’s the media ethics: how does MSNBC han­dle their anchor Ali­cia Menen­dez, the sen­a­tor’s daugh­ter?
From there, we explore just how the media cov­ered the House hear­ing on jus­tice issues with Attor­ney Gen­er­al Mer­rick Gar­land. It drew cov­er­age, but it still min­i­mized Repub­li­can sound­bites and nar­ra­tives, let­ting Gar­land boast with a straight face that the cur­rent Jus­tice Depart­ment is so inde­pen­dent of Biden. PBS stood out for shrink­ing its …