Two weeks after the first GOP presidential debate of Campaign ’16, the broadcast networks continue to obsess over Donald Trump to the near-exclusion of the other sixteen Republican presidential candidates. An MRC analysis of the ABC, CBS and NBC evening news broadcasts during the two weeks prior to the August 6 debate (including weekends) found Trump accounted for 55% of all GOP candidate airtime. After the debate, Trump’s share of the coverage rose even higher, to an astonishing 72% of all GOP airtime.
Bias by the Minute
Bias by the Minute
By Rich Noyes | August 4, 2015 | 9:05 AM EDT
There are currently 17 declared candidates for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, but viewers of the three broadcast evening news shows this year have mainly heard about just two of them: former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and New York businessman Donald Trump. And even though Trump received virtually no TV news attention until he officially declared on June 16, he’s received far more network news coverage than Bush has received all year.
ABC Acts as if Threat Posed to Sharks by Bikini-Clad Girl is Twice as Important as Planned Parenthood Scandal
By Mike Ciandella | July 23, 2015 | 3:23 PM EDT Over the past 9 days, ABC News has spent a grand total of 46 seconds on Planned Parenthood executives trying to sell pieces of aborted babies for a profit. Yet, ABC’s Good Morning America on July 23, found 2 minutes to discuss how a beauty pageant contestant might be posing a threat to sharks.
By Mike Ciandella | July 4, 2015 | 10:00 AM EDT
Despite briefly mentioning at least six reported instances of American citizens joining ISIS in June, and multiple FBI warnings about ISIS’s influence in the United States, the networks chose to devote more time to the “threat” posed by the existence of the Confederate flag.
The evening news shows of ABC, CBS and NBC spent just 17 minutes, 35 seconds on the threat ISIS poses to American, and 37 minutes and 18 seconds on the controversy over the flag. This disparity in news coverage occurred during a ramped up social media campaign by ISIS to recruit Americans and other westerners to commit acts of terrorism.
June 2015: Gay Marriage Decision Dominates Net Coverage; Alleged Police Misconduct 3X More Than Police Deaths
By Mike Ciandella | July 3, 2015 | 10:04 AM EDT The hunt for convicted killers who escaped a prison in New York State was the most covered topic on the evening news broadcasts of ABC, CBS and NBC for the month of June. This was closely followed by coverage of the brutal massacre at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC, with considerable amounts of air time dedicated to the 2016 presidential campaign, the ISIS terror threat and the Supreme Court’s ruling on gay marriage.
By Mike Ciandella | June 15, 2015 | 5:19 PM EDT
Back in 2008, the three broadcast evening newscasts showered then-Democratic candidate Barack Obama with good press during his trip to Europe that July, giving it a total of 92 minutes over an eight-day period (July 20 to July 27, 2008). GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush’s trip to Europe last week didn’t garner a single mention on ABC’s World News Tonight or the CBS Evening News.
By Mike Ciandella | June 8, 2015 | 10:46 AM EDT
As they did in April, the Big Three network evening news broadcasts in May spent more airtime talking about alleged police misconduct than any other single topic – nearly 109 minutes, more than the amount devoted to the Amtrak train derailment, the horrific floods in Texas or the war against ISIS. Nearly all of that network airtime was devoted to just three instances of alleged misconduct (in Baltimore, Cleveland and Madison, Wisconsin), plus general discussion of the topic. In contrast, all of the other murders committed in the U.S. in May garnered less than half as much time (50 minutes and 48 seconds).
By Mike Ciandella | May 7, 2015 | 3:39 PM EDT
If you're more afraid of the cop on the corner than ISIS, maybe you should blame the media. In the month of April, according to a new survey by the Media Research Center, allegations of police misconduct accounted for one out of every seven minutes of broadcast evening news airtime, or 3 hours, 43 minutes.