Much of the legacy media has downplayed the explosive scandal plaguing Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee in Virginia's attorney general race. 

Last week, text messages sent by Jones in 2022 to a fellow lawmaker surfaced showing him fantasizing about giving then-Republican House of Delegates Speaker Todd Gilbert "two bullets to the head," even suggesting that if Gilbert witnessed the murder of his own children that it would encourage him to pivot on policy. Jones has since apologized. 

Other controversies have emerged, including allegations that Jones had said if more police were killed it would reduce the shootings of civilians, which he denied. And after a reckless driving conviction in 2022, Jones served 500 hours of "community service" to his own Political Action Committee. 

It remains to be seen whether Jones, who remains in the race for AG, will impact Virginia's gubernatorial race as his Democratic ballot running mate Abigail Spanberger maintains a lead in the polls against her Republican rival, incumbent Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears. However, the media's scarce coverage is aiding the Democratic ticket. 

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The New York Times, the leading political newspaper in the country, has dedicated zero ink to Jones since the controversy emerged last week, according to its website's search results. 

The Times did, however, run multiple articles in 2014 about a Republican congressional aide who was forced to resign after facing backlash for a Facebook post insulting Sasha and Malia Obama. 

There was virtually no coverage on the three major broadcast networks. None of ABC, NBC and CBS' morning and evening newscasts drew attention to the brewing scandal in the Commonwealth. There was a passing reference made on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday by Republican panelist Marc Short, prompting anchor Kristen Welker to concede it was "going to be a big story" in the coming days, which otherwise would not have been discussed on her program if it weren't for Short. It has yet to be addressed on ABC's "The View." The three networks only acknowledged the controversy on their websites. 

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Other outlets like The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, NPR and PBS have yet to report on Jones, according to search results on their websites. 

The Associated Press has only published two stories on the controversy so far, one of them with the headline, "Trump’s GOP seizes on violent rhetoric from Virginia AG candidate as high-stakes elections loom."

CNN and MSNBC have offered minimal coverage on a handful of programs, but none of it during their primetime programming, which draws the most viewers. MSNBC's "Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarbrough made headlines when he called for Jones to withdraw from the AG race. By Tuesday, however, both networks had moved on from the scandal.  

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The Washington Post editorial board didn't go nearly as far as while condemning Jones' texts.

"The commonwealth has a proud tradition of elevating sensible politicians from both parties. Gentility is the Virginia Way. His texts were the opposite of that. Jones has a month to convince voters that his hateful rhetoric does not reflect how he’d behave if elected as attorney general," The Post editorial board wrote Friday. 

Spanberger and other Democrats have spoken out against Jones' comments, but none have called for him to step aside, hoping he can ride out the scandal. Early voting in Virginia has already begun and the commonwealth's deadline to remove a name from the ballot has already passed.