CBS Quickly Covers GOP Congressman's Skinny-Dipping; Dallied On Weiner

NewsBusters.org ^ | August 20, 2012 | Matthew Balan

[Kaslin]

re hours after Politico reported on Republican Congressman Eric Yoder's admitted skinny-dipping in the Sea of Galilee in Israel, CBS highlighted the story on its Monday morning newscast. By contrast, the network was slow to report on former Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner's lewd photo scandal in 2011. On June 1 of that year, ABC and NBC's morning shows reported on the "underwear uproar," while CBS's Early Show punted on the story.

The following day, CBS played up conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart's early role in spreading word of the New York liberal's indecent Twitter pic: "Supporters of Weiner note that it was right-wing blogger, Andrew Breitbart, who broke the story. But Breitbart tells CBS News he had nothing to do with the supposed hack." Of course, Weiner would go on to admit that he sent the photo.

Fill-in anchor Jeff Glor asked correspondent Nancy Cordes about the Rep. Yoder story: "Nancy, I also want to ask you quickly about this Politico report that the FBI probed an incident involving several congressmen on a trip to Israel last summer. What do you know about this?"

The CBS journalist briefly summarized the Sunday night article from writers Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan:

CORDES: That's right. The FBI, according to Politico, did look into this trip where about 20 people - members of congress, staffers, family members - ended up going for a late night dip in the Sea of Galilee one night, including one member of Congress who was skinny-dipping. Rep. Eric Yoder of Kansas has since released an apology, which reads, in part, Jeff, 'Regrettably, I jumped into the water without a swimsuit.' So, there you go.

Oddly, Cordes didn't explicitly mention Rep. Yoder's Republican party affiliation, while an on-screen graphic disclosed it ("Congressional Skinny-Dipping: Report: FBI Investigates GOP Swim in Galilee Sea"). Also, during NBC's coverage of the story, chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell stated that "contrary to reports, the FBI did not investigate and would not have had any jurisdiction."

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Kaslin.

Mere hours after Politico reported on Republican Congressman Eric Yoder's admitted skinny-dipping in the Sea of Galilee in Israel, CBS highlighted the story on its Monday morning newscast. By contrast, the network was slow to report on former Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner's lewd photo scandal in 2011. On June 1 of that year, ABC and NBC's morning shows reported on the "underwear uproar," while CBS's Early Show punted on the story.

Funny this 'analysis' should come up *now*, eh? Almost as if *not enough attention* was paid to this skinny-dipping story. And see, the two events were equally bad and significant. Weiner for Mayor!!!

[af_vet_rr]

Oh, for Pete’s sake. it is no big deal, other than the fact that they were supposed to be in Israel on government business.

It was mixed company and they were there on a trip paid for by a lobbying group.

But if a bunch of adults want to do something late at night after they've been drinking in another country, whatever, my bigger problem is that it just highlights the perks that Congress critters get and how they are all but bribed with these kinds of paid vacations, or "fact-finding missions" as they like to call them.

That's the real story - the critters in Congress take a lot of trips paid for by lobbying groups, and they pretend like they are "fact-finding".