When Democrats talk violence, the media suddenly forgets how to cover a scandal.
Over five days of national coverage, ABC, CBS, and PBS completely ignored the story of Virginia Democrat Jay Jones’ violent text messages — where he fantasized about assassinating a political rival — according to a new analysis from the Media Research Center.
Only NBC gave the story any airtime at all: 63 seconds total.
MRC’s study reviewed major broadcast programs across all four networks, including World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, and PBS’s NewsHour, from the Friday the story broke through Tuesday morning.
The controversy began when National Review published Jones’ 2022 messages to a former colleague. In them, the Democratic attorney general candidate wrote: “Put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time.”
He likened his opponent, Republican John Gilbert, to Hitler and Pol Pot, and according to a source cited by National Review, later said he wished Gilbert’s wife would “watch her own child die in her arms so that Gilbert might reconsider his political views.”
Even MSNBC’s Morning Joe — hardly a conservative refuge — called Jones’ comments “wildly inappropriate,” with one pundit saying, “This guy should do everyone a favor and step out of the race.”
But most major outlets barely blinked.
The Federalist reported that the Associated Press focused on GOP reaction instead of the violent remarks themselves, while The Washington Post and Politico downplayed the story as “Virginia election upheaval.”
Republicans across Virginia and Washington have called on Jones to withdraw immediately.
A few Democrats have condemned his words but none have withdrawn their support — and not a single U.S. Senate Democrat has demanded he step down.
If an R had sent those texts, every network would’ve led with it.
But when it’s a Democrat? Silence is golden — and politically convenient.
More over at Media Research here Center:
Read the full study here: https://t.co/XHmeiJdPDh
— MRC NewsBusters (@newsbusters) October 8, 2025
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