News in Review: Saturday, February 18, 2023
What does the news landscape look like?
This week’s top story has been Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign launch and the ensuing speculation about the 2024 race. The Ohio train derailment and UFO stories follow closely behind. Recently released text messages between Fox News anchors entered the news cycle yesterday.
This is how the top stories were covered on each side of the media yesterday:
Trump / Haley / 2024 (2% more on the left)
Ohio train derailment (58% more on the right)
Balloons / UFOs / China (80% more on the right)
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:
grand (78.4x)
jury (76.8x)
carlson (5.9x)
Conservative outlets used these words more than liberal outlets:
desantis (4.4x)
lemon (1.9x)
palestine (1.6x)
What is happening in the top stories?
Now for a deep dive into our top three stories, starting with…
Trump / Haley / 2024
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is the most formidable challenger to former President Trump’s hopes of reclaiming the Republican presidential nomination, but his support may be slipping according to recent polling.
Nikki Haley criticized the so-called Don’t Say Gay measure signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) last year, saying it doesn’t go “far enough.”
President Biden has built his 2024 White House run around promises to beat Donald Trump “like a drum”, but a general election pitting Biden against any other Republican could look very different from one against Trump.
Ohio train derailment
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine requested assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help in the aftermath of a fiery train derailment that led to a chemical leak in eastern Ohio.
The Senate Energy and Public Works Committee plans to hold a hearing on the environmental and public health impacts on the local community following the train derailment.
Former President Donald Trump is planning a visit to the village of East Palestine, Ohio, the site of the derailment.
The Biden administration has “mobilized a robust, multi-agency effort to support the people of East Palestine, Ohio”.
Balloons / UFOs / China
The U.S. military shot down three objects last weekend in the aftermath of a Chinese balloon that drifted across the continental U.S.
The objects have not been specifically identified, but President Biden said on Thursday that they were probably balloons linked to private companies.
A hobby group that’s been speculated to have launched one of the balloons shot down by U.S. forces over the weekend said there’s a chance that it was not theirs.
China accused the U.S. of flying high-altitude balloons into its airspace and that of other countries.