Week in review: Saturday, September 2, 2023

Sep 02, 2023

What does the news landscape look like?

Donald trump’s legal issues began the week as the top story, but have been unseated by Mitch McConnell’s freeze and Hurricane Idalia.

This is how the top stories were covered on each side of the media yesterday:

• McConnell freeze / GOP (9% more on the right)

• Hurricane / DeSantis (12% more on the right)

• Ukraine / Russia (0% 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 among the top stories.

Liberal outlets used these words more than conservative outlets:

• criminal (10.8x)

• children (3.3x)

• russian (2.9x)

Conservative outlets used these words more than liberal outlets:

• border (14.4x)

• migrants (12.6x)

• illegal (8x)

Now for a deep dive into our top three stories, starting with…

Key people: Nikki Haley, Mitch McConnell, Hannah Thomas, Daniel Cameron

Background:

Mitch McConnell froze up for more than 30 seconds during a public appearance with the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.
McConnell, 81, has experienced two incidents where he appeared to freeze and remain speechless during press conferences.
McConnell was diagnosed with a concussion earlier this year after a fall.

Latest developments:

Questions are being raised about McConnell’s ability to serve and the continued service of elderly members of Congress.
Nikki Haley, Republican presidential candidate, criticized Mitch McConnell and calls the U.S. Senate a “privileged nursing home.”

Key people: Ron DeSantis, Joe Biden

Background:

Hurricane Idalia made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 3 storm.
Over 200,000 customers were without power in the state.
Florida has experienced three major hurricanes in the past seven years.

Latest developments:

DeSantis has “no plans” to meet with President Biden during his visit to Florida to survey the damage from Hurricane Idalia.
Idalia is now a post-tropical cyclone and has moved into the Atlantic Ocean.
Thousands of customers in northeastern Florida are still without power.
Idalia caused significant property damage but relatively few deaths.

Latest developments:

Ukrainian military intelligence agency (GUR) claims that four Russian Il-76 military transport aircraft were destroyed by drones at the Pskov airfield.
Pskov is located near the border with Estonia, Latvia, and Belarus.
The drones most likely targeted the aircraft fuel tanks.
The attack on the airfield disrupted civilian aviation and damaged Russian military aircraft.
Ukraine has been conducting a long-range drone strike campaign against Russian cities as part of its counteroffensive operation.