CBS Quickly Covers GOP Congressman's Skinny-Dipping; Dallied On Weiner Scandal
Mere hours after Politico reported on Republican Congressman Kevin 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 [sic] 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.
Representative Yoder's actual first name is Kevin. Oddly, Cordes didn't explicitly mention the congressman'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 Today 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."
