Conservatives have long accused the media of covering up controversies in the Obama administration, including the attacks on a U.S. consulate in Libya that resulted in the deaths of ambassador Chris Stevens and three others, and reports that the IRS targeted tea party groups.
Rove pointed us to reports from the Media Research Center, a conservative website critical of the press, highlighting what they say are disparities in the amount of coverage Christie garnered versus other scandals. We link to them here and here for your consideration.
But we also conducted our own analysis to see if Christie’s coverage pales in significance to Benghazi.
It’s fair to say the coverage of Christie’s week was significant. When the story first broke in New Jersey newspapers, every major outlet quickly followed their lead. By Sunday, Christie was a topic of debate on all of the political talk shows.
Just how much was Christie in the news? A quick search through Lexis-Nexis, a research service that tracks the work of the media, found Christie’s name mentioned in 203 transcripts posted from the cable (CNN, Fox and MSNBC) and network (ABC, CBS and NBC) news outlets, plus National Public Radio. CNN led the way with 83 mentions.
A simple search of "Chris Christie" and "bridge" also came up in 30 New York Times articles and 27 Washington Post articles, and 778 times in newspapers and wire stories across the country.
Clearly, Christie became a national story. He is a well-known figure thought by many to be the GOP frontrunner for the presidential nomination in 2016, and a potential scandal in his administration instantly attracted widespread press attention. But how does that compare to the coverage of Benghazi?
It’s tough to put the two controversies side-by-side. The Christie news, which broke under the nose of the New York media, has a clear starting point (when the New Jersey media first reported on it) and climax (Christie’s news conference).
The events surrounding Benghazi garnered immediate attention, but had several watershed moments: Obama’s statement from the White House Rose Garden, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice’s news blitz pinning the attacks to an anti-Muslim YouTube video, the presidential debate between Obama and Republican Mitt Romney during which Benghazi was an issue, and the congressional hearings featuring Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, among other events.
We decided to focus on the week after the attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya, which occurred Sept. 11, 2012. It’s a little bit longer of a time period to track (the Christie news broke mid-week so we have just four days of search results), but stick with us.
Using the same news outlets we tracked for Christie, we found 250 transcripts that mentioned "Benghazi." Again, CNN led the way with 100 mentions.
CNN? But I thought they were the Clinton News Network. Whyyyyyy? lol
There were more than 2,800 stories that contain "Benghazi" in newspapers and wire services, though that also includes international newspapers. Domestically, the New York Times wrote 69 stories and the Washington Post had 49.
Mainstream news outlets also gave airtime and space to Republicans who alleged a cover up on the part of the administration. During Oct. 18-25, 2012, when accusations were especially frequent, CNN and MSNBC referred to "Benghazi cover up" a combined 13 times.
Benghazi was also competing for airtime against other large national news events, like the presidential election and later Hurricane Sandy. With Congress just returning to town, the scandal in Christie’s office broke during a relatively slow week in politics.
