News in Review: Saturday, February 11, 2023
What does the news landscape look like?
Chinese balloons spy balloons remain the top story. The State of the Union address, which was the top story on Wednesday, has fallen out of the news cycle.
This is how the top stories were covered on each side of the media yesterday:
Chinese balloons (44% more on the right)
FBI / Pence (23% more on the left)
Medicare / Social Security (222% more on the left)
Media bias ratings are from AllSides.
This is how articles from liberal and conservative outlets were distributed over the past five days amongst the top stories.
Liberal outlets used these words more than conservative outlets:
santos (1.5x)
scott (1.3x)
mcconnell (1.1x)
Conservative outlets used these words more than liberal outlets:
border (3.6x)
fetterman (3.5x)
john (1.6x)
What is happening in the top stories?
Now for an AI-produced deep dive into our top three stories, starting with…
Chinese balloons
The US blacklisted six Chinese entities linked to Beijing’s aerospace programs in response to an alleged Chinese spy balloon that traversed US airspace
A US F-22 fighter jet shot down an unidentified object flying high over Alaska
A 2022 military intelligence report mentioned sightings of high-altitude Chinese balloons during the Trump administration
FBI / Pence
The FBI conducted a search of former Vice President Mike Pence’s home in Indiana after documents with classified markings were found there.
Former President Trump praised former Vice President Mike Pence as an “honorable man” following reports of a subpoena from the DOJ’s special counsel.
The National Archives took custody of documents shipped to a law office in Boston by President Biden’s personal attorney.
Former President Trump’s legal team has turned over additional classified materials to federal prosecutors in recent months.
President Biden blamed staffers who weren’t thorough enough in packing up his old offices for the multiple classified documents found from his time as vice president.
Medicare / Social Security
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) announced a new bill to increase funding for Social Security and Medicare and institute a higher standard for making cuts to the entitlement programs.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said that “extreme MAGA” Republicans view Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme” and called on Democrats to protect the program.
Republicans are lining up behind attaching spending cuts to legislation to raise the debt limit, but a majority of Americans say the two issues should be handled separately.