While all three broadcast networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS, highlighted MoveOn.org protestor Lauren Valle being stepped on outside Monday's Kentucky senate debate, only CBS reported new video showing Valle running up to Rand Paul's car and trying to shove a sign into the Republican candidate's face.
The morning and evening newscasts on Tuesday all pointed to the scuffle as evidence of the 2010 campaign getting "ugly." On ABC's Good Morning America, correspondent Jake Tapper declared: "In the Kentucky senate race, the bitter and heated contest between Democrat Jack Conway and Republican Rand Paul, continued in a debate...The tensions spilled into the crowd, when Rand Paul supporters attacked a Jack Conway supporter wearing a Rand Paul wig." On CBS's Early Show, correspondent Nancy Cordes remarked: "...there was an ugly scene outside the debate, when what appeared to be Rand Paul supporters grabbed a protester from the liberal organization MoveOn.org. After wrestling her to the ground, one of them stepped on her head."
On Wednesday, CBS stepped up their coverage with an exclusive interview of Valle on the Early Show. Co-host Harry Smith specifically asked if Valle took any provocative action: "You say 'simply there to hold a sign.' Some accounts of this says that you were forcing your way through the crowd, that there was some – some of you were trying to get to the candidate in some way. Can you disabuse us of that notion?" Valle claimed Paul supporters were the sole aggressors: "This was premeditated. My partner, Alex, heard them say, just before this, 'we're here to do crowd control and we might have to take someone out.'"
By Wednesday evening, Evening News anchor Katie Couric corrected the record: "Supporters of Rand Paul, the Republican candidate, roughed up Lauren Valle, a 23-year-old liberal activist with the group MoveOn.org. She claims the attack was unprovoked, but new video shows Valle appearing to rush towards Rand Paul's car as he arrived for the debate. That's when she was wrestled to the ground." On Thursday's Early Show, White House correspondent Chip Reid gave the same explanation.
Neither NBC nor ABC mentioned the new video of Valle's provocation on either their morning or evening news programs.
