If a doctor suspected of providing free trips and underage Dominican Republic prostitutes to a prominent ranking Democratic senator has his West Palm Beach, Fla. offices raided by the FBI, but it’s not picked up by ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC or CNN — did it really happen?
With exception of the local West Palm Beach ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates, this latest chapter in the long-standing controversy involving New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez has gone unreported by those outlets, according to a search of TVEyes media monitoring services conducted by The Daily Caller. (RELATED: Emails show FBI investigating New Jersey senator in prostitution sex escapades)
FBI agents last night raided the medical-office complex of Dr. Salomon Melgen, a doctor who has not only donated to Menendez, but also to Sen. Bill Nelson and Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Joe Garcia, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart.
Menendez’s troubles as a whole have received scant attention overall in the national media. However, they did find their way into Jay Leno’s “The Tonight Show” show monologue on Tuesday. (RELATED VIDEO: Leno jokes about Menendez in monologue)
“In more serious news, the FBI investigating New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez for allegedly soliciting Dominican prostitutes,” Leno said. “So, once again, foreign workers doing the jobs Americans don’t want to do, right? Well, the FBI says Menendez agreed to pay the prostitutes $500 but then only gave them $100. So, he had sex like a Democrat but is a fiscal conservative like Republicans. That’s what we need in Washington. We need more men like that. Yeah — a little different when they’re spending their own money, huh?”
CNBC’s Larry Kudlow has also covered the story on his program.
A review of transcripts of the major networks showed extensive coverage of scandals involving former Republican Sens. John Ensign and Larry Craig, former Republican South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and current Republican Louisiana Sen. David Vitter from ABC, CBS and NBC’s national news broadcasts.
The story has been updated.