Week in review: Saturday, June 24, 2023
What does the news landscape look like?
The Missing Titanic submarine dominated the news this week, along with the Hunter Biden plea deal and the anniversary of the Dobbs decision.
This is how the top stories were covered on each side of the media yesterday:
• Missing Titanic sub (15% more on the right)
• Abortion / Dobbs anniversary (29% more on the left)
• Hunter Biden plea deal (311% 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 among the top stories.
Liberal outlets used these words more than conservative outlets:
• patients (11.2x)
• care (3.4x)
• justices (1.5x)
Conservative outlets used these words more than liberal outlets:
• whistleblower (12.3x)
• irs (8.7x)
• hunter (6.2x)
What is happening in the top stories?
Now for a deep dive into our top three stories, starting with…
Abortion / Dobbs anniversary
Background:
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court rescinded a five-decade-old right to abortion in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, prompting a seismic shift in debates about politics, values, freedom, and fairness.
Twenty-five million women of childbearing age now live in states where the law makes abortions harder to get than they were before the ruling.
Decisions about the law are largely in the hands of state lawmakers and courts. Most Republican-led states have restricted abortion. Fourteen ban abortion in most cases at any point in pregnancy. Twenty Democratic-leaning states have protected access to abortion.
Latest developments:
Former Vice President Mike Pence said he believes pushing for greater abortion restrictions is a “winning issue” for the Republican Party, as he calls on other GOP presidential candidates to support a national 15-week ban.
Democrats in both chambers of Congress hoped to force votes this week on protecting access to abortion, a preview of the party’s strategy for the 2024 elections.
Several Republican presidential candidates praised restrictions on abortion rights at a conference of Christian conservatives on Friday, illustrating how the issue still animates the party one year after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down nationwide constitutional protections for the procedure.
The event, which former President Donald Trump will address on Saturday, coincides with the first anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark Dobbs decision, which overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that had legalized abortion.
Missing Titanic sub
Background:
OceanGate Expeditions has been chronicling the Titanic’s decay and the underwater ecosystem around it via yearly voyages since 2021.
The submersible Titan, owned and operated by OceanGate Expeditions, went missing on its way to the wreckage of the Titanic.
The five people on the vessel were Stockton Rush, a renowned Titanic expert, a world-record holding adventurer, and two members of one of Pakistan’s wealthiest families.
Latest developments:
The Titan submersible suffered a catastrophic implosion that likely killed its pilot and four passengers instantly amid the intense water pressure in the deep North Atlantic.
Crews are still looking for evidence of what occurred near the Titanic shipwreck, 12,500 feet below the surface.
The cost of the unprecedented search for the missing Titan submersible will easily stretch into the millions of dollars.
The search area spanned thousands of miles with agencies such as the U.S. Coast Guard, the Canadian Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, and other agencies and private entities.
The Defense Department committed two C-130 aircraft for search and rescue flights over the area, with a third C-130 from the Air National Guard to join the search.
Hunter Biden plea deal
Key people: Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden, U.S. Attorney David Weiss, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Gary Shapley
Background:
Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to tax crimes and has reached a diversion agreement relating to unlawful possession of a weapon. He was charged with two counts of willful failure to pay income tax and a third charge of possession of a firearm in 2018, a weapon he was in possession of while using crack cocaine.
Hunter Biden reportedly paid off his tax liability in 2020, with court documents detailing he initially failed to make tax payments of more than $100,000 in both 2017 and 2018 on income exceeding $1.5 million.
The federal probe into Hunter Biden began in 2018 and burst into public view in December 2020.
Congressional Republicans are continuing their own wide-ranging probe into nearly every facet of Hunter Biden’s business dealings, including examining foreign payments and other aspects of his finances.
Some Republican candidates hoping to face off against President Biden in the 2024 election are decrying the deal as evidence of an unfair justice system.
Latest developments:
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland denied allegations by an IRS whistleblower that the Justice Department interfered with the investigation into Hunter Biden, saying that U.S. Attorney David Weiss was given complete authority to make charging decisions on his own.
Republicans have attacked the charging decision, calling it a sweetheart deal.
The Republican-led House Ways and Means Committee released a transcript of testimony from Gary Shapley, an IRS official who claimed that Garland had denied a request from Weiss to be appointed special counsel. Garland denied the claim and said that Weiss always had full authority to file charges wherever and however he saw fit against Hunter Biden.
Former President Donald Trump compared the deal to a “traffic ticket” and some Republican candidates are using the development to attack President Biden.