If Jay Jones were a Republican, he’d probably be a household name by now.
Imagine if there was a Republican candidate in a hotly contested race that was convicted of reckless driving, caught wishing death on a politician and his family in texts, accused of wanting to see police officers shot, and was called to drop out of the race by the sitting President of the United States?
That candidate’s face would be plastered all over ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS’s news shows, next to those heinous texts, accusations, and arrest record, but because Jay Jones is a Democrat, he enjoys the protection of the broadcast networks.
In resurfaced texts that were released on October 3, Jones (who is running for Virginia attorney general) suggested he would shoot then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert over Adolf Hitler and declared that Gilbert’s wife should be forced to watch his “fascist” children be killed.
The texts from 2022 are more relevant given the heightened tensions about political violence, especially since the assassination of Charlie Kirk. On October 5, President Donald Trump called on Jones to drop out.
So how much time did the broadcast networks devote to the texts controversy?
63 seconds.
MRC analysts looked at the ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS evening, morning and Sunday roundtable shows from October 3 through the morning of October 7 and found just ONE mention of Jones text scandal. The only discussion of Jones on the broadcast networks arrived on NBC’s Sunday roundtable show.
On the October 5 edition of NBC’s Meet the Press, former Donald Trump staffer Marc Short brought up the controversy that sparked a 63-second conversation.
MARC SHORT: But can I also say in your interview with Leader Jeffries, that can we stop with the pearl clutching about the mean tweets and sombrero tweets? That this week it came to light that a Democratic candidate for Attorney General of the State of Virginia called for the assassination of a political opponent, called for the assassination of that political opponent’s family, and there’s not one national Democrat calling for him to step aside. Not one. It’s disgraceful.
This prompted Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker to press former President Joe Biden staffer Neera Tanden: “Neera, let me let you respond to that because that is going to be a big story, I think, in the coming days.”
But this “big story” was never mentioned again on Welker’s own network or any other broadcast news show, for that matter.
And now there is a new opportunity to discuss Jones’s texts, as it appears Jones may have advocated the killing of police officers.
On October 6, the New York Post reported:
Virginia’s Democratic attorney general candidate Jay Jones chillingly suggested that if more cops got killed after being stripped of legal protection, they would shoot fewer people, according new claims from an ex-colleague in the state legislature.
Jones, a former Democrat representative in Virginia’s House of Delegates, is already facing calls to drop out after Republican Del. Carrie Coyner revealed 2022 text exchanges between them in which he suggested he would shoot then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert over Adolf Hitler, and said Gilbert and his wife should have to watch his “fascist” children die.
The networks have also failed to discuss Jones’s 2022 conviction of speeding at 116 mph.
The following 63-second conversation is the ONLY mention of the Jones controversy on any of the broadcast networks:
Consider where we are: on Meet the Depressed, former Pence CoS @marctshort calls out national Dem silence over VA AG candidate Jay Jones' disgusting, violent texts fantasizing about the murder of a political opponent and his family. Kristen Welker flips the hot potato over to… pic.twitter.com/C6LD1kgNNV
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) October 5, 2025
For this study MRC analysts looked at the broadcast evening (ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News), morning news shows (ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS Mornings, CBS Saturday Morning, CBS Sunday Morning, NBC Today, NBC Sunday Today), Sunday roundtable shows (ABC’s This Week, NBC’s Meet the Press, CBS’s Face the Nation), and PBS’s NewsHour from October 3 through the morning of October 7.