OPINION: Has the media learned anything after its near failure covering Jim Jordan’s speaker challenge? Maybe.

From the war in Israel to the Republican House speaker mess and everything in between, it is a chaotic time in our country and in our world. We citizens rely on the media to help keep us informed every step of the way. Unfortunately, there have been a number of mistakes, forced errors and cowardly takes with the coverage of these very big and important stories. Will lessons be learned and coverage improve? One of the first tests will come this week as Republicans again try to select a Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

As I wrote last week, the American media largely failed to adequately cover then-speaker candidate Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio. There were glaring omissions from the many “who is Jim Jordan” bio stories including a near blackout on his role as an architect of the plot to overturn the 2020 election. Media Matters found that only one-third of the stories about Jordan bothered to mention his election denier role.

“After Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) became the leading contender in the House speaker’s race on the night of October 12, when Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) dropped out, top U.S. newspapers — The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today — and broadcast TV coverage on ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS often failed to inform audiences of Jordan’s role in trying to overturn the 2020 election.”

Now that Jordan has failed to become speaker after repeated tries, nine Republicans are now vying for the job. It’s imperative that the media not make the same coverage mistakes with each of them. There should be in-depth coverage of anyone who runs for such an important job from their policy positions to skeletons in the closet. We absolutely must know if any of the House speaker wannabes were election deniers and if so, what their precise role was.

Some required questions also include:

• Is Joe Biden the duly elected President of the United States?
• Will you promise to certify the 2024 election results?

So far, I’m cautiously optimistic. There are a few more “where do they stand on policy” stories than we saw about Jim Jordan. While it’s today story about the candidates is all horse race, Punchbowl News does has a graphic show policy positions. But this one from former pollster Adam Carlson is the best one I’ve seen:

Huffington Post senior politics reporter Jennifer Bendery has this “snapshot” look at the nine candidates. Her story does include where each candidate stood on the 2020 election. It also notes an important fact being overlooked by other political reporters and pundits alike:

“While Emmer didn’t vote to overturn the 2020 election, he did sign onto a Supreme Court amicus brief in support of throwing out votes in various states.”

Emmer is Tom Emmer, the GOP majority whip from Minnesota. Steve Benen of MSNBC also notes Emmer’s election denier two-step by Emmer and another speaker candidate, Austin Scott of Georgia here.

“…before anyone suggests this makes them “moderates” on matters related to democracy, let’s not forget that when Texas filed a lawsuit, urging the U.S. To help overturn Donald Trump’s defeat, both Emmer and Scott were among the many House Republicans who signed onto a ridiculous legal brief endorsing the indefensible gambit.”

Andrew Kaczynski of CNN also gets it right:

Emmer signed on to the Texas lawsuit trying to throw out the results in all of the swing states to throw the election to Trump though. It was probably outside of January 6 the second most extreme action in that whole post 2020 period. https://t.co/d5eBcEfZWu

— Andy Kaczynski (@KFILE) October 23, 2023

As some of these stories and social media posts show, the news coverage has improved just slightly since the near complete failure of the Jim Jordan coverage. It’s a step in the right direction. Let’s hope the improved coverage is motivated by lessons learned. The alternative — that the press is willing to more boldly report on relative unknowns but lacks the courage to take on lions like Jordan who bring them ratings — is as likely as it is depressing.

Jennifer Schulze is a former Chicago journalist who talks media every month on WCPT 820AM on “Live, Local & Progressive with Joan Esposito” with former Chicago Tribune editor Mark Jacob. You can follow her on Twitter/X @NewsJennifer or Threads @jenniferschulzechi.