Brian Stelter here at 10:15pm ET Tuesday with the latest on Dan Bongino, Disney, Drew Barrymore, March Madness, and much more...

The story that affects every other storyThe fight over the next election is already underway. And it needs to be a focal point of the news media's coverage in the months to come.Wednesday's development: Senate Democrats introduced the For the People Act, the sweeping election and voting rights package that passed the House earlier this month. The package "would counteract Republican efforts at the state level to curb access to the ballot box," CNN's Kelly Mena wrote.Republicans, through state-level efforts, are trying to make it harder for some citizens to vote. Democrats are generally trying to expand voting access. And some prominent Dems say news outlets are failing to give this issue the attention it deserves. "While the physical attack on January 6 was well covered by the media, the equally damaging legal assault on voting has received relatively little attention," Marc Elias, chair of Perkins Coie's Political Law Group, told me. Elias, a longtime Democratic voting rights lawyer, said he believes the "attack on voting rights" is "the most under-reported story right now."False balance in voting coverage?"Under-reported" is not the same as "uncovered," of course. (Elias ticked off some reporters when he tweeted about the dearth of coverage last month.) There has been strong reporting, to be sure. But Elias said he believes the media has an underlying challenge "covering stories about American democracy" because "reporters are uncomfortable treating one side as correct and one side as wrong on topics that they see as fundamentally about politics."Here's the argument he made to me: "The typical structure of a story on voting rights thus becomes (1) Republicans are passing an unprecedented number of new voting restrictions; (2) Democrats and civil rights groups claim they will harm voters; (3) Republicans say its necessary to protect election integrity. In that structure, only the first of these is treated as a fact. They second and third are the competing claims of each side. This formula leads news outlets to report 'big' pieces about voting rights, with lots of facts and figures (section 1), followed by quotes from each side (sections 2 and 3)."Elias said stories about First Amendment infringements are covered differently -- without the both-sides structure -- and that's how voting rights should be approached too. Don't view this "as a political story," he argued, it's a story "about our democracy."Reporters should ask for specificsI raised this issue with Jennifer Morrell and Jessica Huseman on last Sunday's "Reliable Sources." Morrell said "one of the most important things media need to do here is really push on these legislators who are claiming that they're making these changes to increase voter confidence or to further secure the way voting is conducted." Get specific, Morrell said, and see if they have any evidence – or if they're just laundering the Big Lie from 2020.Huseman noted that voter fraud in various forms has been "a talking point for the far-right of the Republican Party for decades," so the damage done by Trumpworld in 2020 was "just building on a decades-long historical base of false claims." Thus, news outlets should call out this campaign for what it is -- lies on top of lies, intended to suppress the vote. >> BTW: Huseman is the editorial director of VoteBeat, which calls itself a "pop-up nonprofit newsroom covering local election administration and voting in eight states..."

Bills should be based "on facts, not falsehoods"

The News Literacy Project weighed in on this problem the other day: "As numerous states consider steps to change the way voters participate in elections, we urge elected officials to base their actions on credible evidence." The organization said the state-level bills premised on the Big Lie run counter "to our values and would do lasting harm to voting rights, which are among the most sacrosanct tenets of American democracy."

Terror in Georgia, fear everywhere

CNN.com's headline right now captures this week's truth: The Atlanta shootings were "a terrifying escalation for Asian Americans." Nicole Chavez has the latest here.

After Wednesday's press conference, local officials were criticized for giving too much weight to the claims of the suspect, and not enough to the layers of misogyny and violence underneath. This WaPo headline captured it well: "Suspect's claim of 'sex addiction' not race motive has racist undertones, experts say." And https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/200610142336-08-georgia-voting-exlarge-169.jpg said it bluntly on CNN: Taking the suspect's word for it "seems like a joke..."

AAJA's guidance

The Asian American Journalists Association offered guidance to newsrooms in the wake of the shooting spree. Among the points:

-- "Take caution with language in news coverage that could fuel the hypersexualization of Asian women, which has been linked to violence and discrimination."

-- "Cover the shootings in the context of the current rise in attacks on Asian Americans."

-- "Understand anti-Asian racism and invisibility."

-- "Diversify your sources by interviewing and quoting AAPI experts."

-- "Empower and support your AAPI journalists and colleagues." Read more here...

FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE

-- The massive market rally continued Wednesday... And media sector stocks are among the biggest beneficiaries... (FT)

-- Walter Isaacson's "The Code Breaker" debuted at No. 1 on the NYT's nonfiction lists, the only new title on the list this week... (NYT)

-- New digital data is out, and CNN topped all news competitors for February... (TheWrap)

-- Fresh reporting from Meridith McGraw and Gabby Orr: Donald Trump "is scheduled to sit for a dozen interviews in the coming weeks with authors examining his presidency..." (Politico)

-- Trump adviser Jason Miller's quote in the aforementioned story: Trump "remains the hottest name in politics and he's the interview that everyone wants..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO

-- "Eric Hall has been named the new senior executive producer of CNN's morning show, 'New Day,'" as Javi Morgado moves to the 11am hour... (TVNewser)

-- Politico's Eugene Daniels is joining MSNBC as a contributor... (Deadline)

-- Kate O'Brian is joining the E.W. Scripps Company as head of news for its national TV networks business... (Scripps)

-- Very strong language atop Molly Jong-Fast's latest column: "Rupert Murdoch Got His Shot but Fox News Wants You to Die to Own the Libs..." (Beast)

-- Tucker Carlson is making vaccines "a part of his larger cultural narrative. This is profoundly cynical and could have life and death consequences for his viewers," Alex Shephard writes... (New Republic)

-- With Trump recommending people get vaccinated, Philip Bump writes that "the Trump-Tucker cold war has begun..." (WaPo)

Thein Zaw's birthday behind bars

Every day the situation in Myanmar seems to get worse. CNN's latest story says that the military has "moved to seal off several key areas and impose an information blackout in an apparent bid to quash opposition."

So it is important to raise awareness about the people imprisoned there, including members of the media, like AP photographer Thein Zaw. AP Asia-Pacific News Director Adam Schreck told me: "Thein Zaw will mark his 33rd birthday behind bars in the infamous Insein Prison in Yangon, Myanmar on Thursday. He was arrested by police last month for doing nothing more than his job, covering protests against the military takeover of the Southeast Asian country. His images and brave reporting for the global news agency – and the work of other detained journalists in Myanmar – helped illuminate what is happening in one of the world's hardest to cover countries."

FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE

By Oliver Darcy:

-- Fox's Maria Bartiromo issued a very brief correction Wednesday after conflating Trump's calls to Georgia officials on Tuesday... (Beast)

-- Earlier in the day, a Fox "Outnumbered" panel suggested WaPo's story could have swayed the Georgia runoffs. "There's just one problem," as Aidan McLaughlin wrote, "the Post story was published on Jan. 9, four days after the Georgia elections." Fox said it will correct that error on Thursday... (Mediaite)

-- Sonam Sheth writes about how part of the ODNI's report about Russia's campaign against Biden "appears to be referencing a documentary by the Trump-allied One America News Network..." (Insider)

-- A smart point by NBC's Ben Collins at SXSW: "Journalists are now stuck in arguments about basic established facts instead of moving the ball forward..." (Twitter)

-- "Facebook on Wednesday announced it will no longer recommend civic and political pages or new groups to all users globally..." (CNBC)

-- Correction: Last night I incorrectly referred to Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs as a "he." I apologize to her...

Fox's top lawyer defends network's election coverage

Oliver Darcy writes: "Fox Corp's top lawyer, Viet Dinh, defended the election disinfo that flowed from the company's right-wing talk channel in the days and weeks after the election, saying in an interview published Wednesday he has 'no regrets' about it. Dinh dishonestly suggested that Fox's post-election coverage was just aimed at covering Trump's deranged election challenges. Over here in reality, of course, we saw Fox hosts regularly push the Big Lie to their audiences. Ironically, as he tried to rewrite the reality of what happened, Dinh accused Fox's 'political opponents and economic competitors' of trying to 'rewrite the history of the election....'"

Piers Morgan broke an Ofcom record

Piers Morgan's anti-Meghan Markle comments on ITV's "Good Morning Britain" "attracted a record number of complaints to TV regulator Ofcom," per the BBC. "Some 57,000 complaints have been made about the show's coverage of the Oprah Winfrey interview." Morgan said on Twitter that "I've had more people than that come up & congratulate me in the street for what I said." Sure, Piers...

ON A RELATED NOTE...

Best thing I read today

It's from last week, but I only discovered it today. Clive Myrie, a BBC News presenter and journalist, delivered a lecture in honor of Harold Evans last Thursday. The Guardian published an extract. Myrie spoke about the role of bodies like Ofcom, asking, "Are independent regulators the only way to ensure media companies use the power they have wisely?" Myrie invited folks to "contrast the situation here in the UK, where there is a robust and for some choking regulatory framework with the US, where oversight in one crucial respect is nonexistent: the requirement to fairly represent the views of opposing sides in news and current affairs broadcasts. Could that lack of a check on how America does news actually imperil democracy itself?" The counter-arguments and the defenses of the US model are numerous, but here's his argument...

FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR

By Kerry Flynn:

-- Quartz is selling an article as an NFT and the money goes to the Lauren Brown Fellowship for women journalists of underrepresented backgrounds... (Quartz)

-- Revenue from Vox Media Podcast Network doubled in 2020 compared to 2019. Liz Nelson, Vox's VP of audio, said the company expects similar growth this year as it creates more evergreen shows... (Digiday)

-- "LinkedIn's new ad campaign tells advertisers that the right place for business-to-business marketing isn't alongside pictures of cute puppies or viral videos," Meg Graham writes. Personally, I think puppy content belongs on every platform... (CNBC)

Substack backlash

"Substack has lost several high-profile writers in recent days thanks to a new initiative that weakens its claims of editorial impartiality. As the platform figures out its position on content moderation—a lightning rod for media in recent years—emerging competitors, and even stalwarts like Facebook, stand to benefit," Adweek's Mark Stenberg wrote.

Kerry Flynn adds: "The controversy stems from the Substack Pro program for paying writers advances. Among the concerns is Substack allegedly providing money to people who 'attack journalists, or stoke fears about transgender people,' as Casey Newton wrote in his Substack, Platformer, on Tuesday. Jude Ellison Sady Doyle, a writer who uses Substack but now plans to leave, wrote for GEN, 'Substack disclaims all responsibility for shaping the discourse around trans people, saying it does not make 'editorial decisions' ... Determining which writers deserve advances is an editorial decision.'

Substack execs responded to concerns on Wednesday with a blog titled 'Substack is for independent writers.' One clarification is that Substack Pro includes more than 30 writers, where more than half are women and more than a third are people of color, and that they cover 'a range of issues' and none 'can be reasonably construed as anti-trans.' We still don't know who exactly is on Substack Pro, and Substack says it won't disclose. Participants can choose to do so themselves..."

FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE

-- YouTube has pulled Steven Crowder's racist video for violating its policies against coronavirus misinfo... (The Verge)

-- Meanwhile, the "Louder with Crowder" show "doubled down on the -- show’s racism, transphobia, and general bigotry," Jason Campbell writes... (MMFA)

-- Law and Crime Network has sued Court TV for claiming it was the "only network in the world to cover the [Derek Chauvin] trial live and in its entirety..." (THR)

-- Richard Deitsch's latest: "Is Drew Brees the future of NBC's 'Sunday Night Football' booth?" (The Athletic)

March Madness time

The tournament will "look and feel different" due to the pandemic, and it will be "more challenging than ever to produce," CBS Sports president Sean McManus says.

"But that challenge will need to be met, as $1 billion is on the line," CNBC's Jabari Young wrote. "MediaRadar, an advertising data firm, estimates the 2019 NCAA March Madness tournament generated $1.18 billion in television ad spend for CBS and Turner Sports. Keep in mind the networks pay a little more than $800 million for the current rights package."

>> WarnerMedia News and Sports chairman Jeff Zucker last week: "I think this tournament comes at an important time in the country. And I think that, notwithstanding the incredibly serious nature of what's going on with the virus, I think that the tournament can hopefully be an outlet of emotional and psychological relief for much of the country."

Lots of talk about "The Talk"

The CBS daytime show "The Talk" remains in a state of limbo. Sharon Osbourne spoke with "ET" and said she felt like a "sacrificial lamb" -- a contention that others would surely dispute. Osbourne admitted that she is unsure if she will remain on the show. Lisa Respers France has more here...

>> People mag's headline about Wednesday's developments: "Osbourne repeats racial slur in new denial as racism allegations at 'The Talk' mount..."

>> The Cut's Claire Lampen puts it simply: "What in the hell is going on with Sharon Osbourne?"

Kevin Mayer gets blunt

Brian Lowry writes: "There are several interesting observations in Kevin Mayer's interview with CNBC, in which he discusses whether media companies are reacting fast enough to the erosion of their traditional TV models as they pivot to streaming. But the most refreshing part came in Mayer's honest response to leaving Disney and his disappointment about not getting the top job there -- far from the usual rainbows and happy talk that generally surround executive departures. 'Did I want to be CEO? Of course I did. Who wouldn’t want to be CEO of the Walt Disney Company?' Mayer, now at DAZN, said..."

>> Mayer's comment about Bob Iger's departure raised a lot of eyebrows: He said "I think that Bob left earlier than he expected to..."