A whopping 91 percent of news coverage about Donald Trump on the three broadcast nightly newscasts over the past 12 weeks has been ‘hostile’, a new study finds.
That is what was reported today by Politico, based on a study by a conservative group, the Media Research Center.
The MRC report found that Republican nominee Trump received significantly more broadcast network news coverage than Democrat Hillary Clinton, but nearly all of the news segments (nine in 10) were deemed hostile, according to the study.
This comes on the heels of a separate report last week by the Center for Public Integrity that concluded journalists, including many TV news personalities, had collectively donated about $400,000 to the Clinton campaign – about 96 percent of all cash contributed to the presidential candidates from news industry employees.
For their study, MRC analyzed all 588 evening news stories that either discussed or mentioned the presidential campaign on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts from July 29 through October 20. The networks devoted about one-third percent of their on-air time to the campaign. The study did not include comments from the campaigns or candidates themselves. The focus was on what correspondents, anchors, expert commentators, and voters on the street said.
In recent weeks, with all the claims of sexual assault leveled at Trump by 11 women, plus his incendiary performances in the three presidential debates, the GOP candidate has offered little in his words and actions that would warrant considerable positive news coverage.
However, according to Politico’s Hadas Gold, the numbers indicate that the networks spent far more airtime focusing on the personal controversies involving Trump, such as his treatment of women, than controversies surrounding Clinton, such as her email practices or the Clinton Foundation.
Though neither candidate was necessarily celebrated, Clinton “largely just stayed out of the line of fire,” the study asserted.
In a related piece of research, television columnist and news tracker Andrew Tyndall noted on Monday that issues coverage on the nightly news thus far this year “has been virtually non-existent.”
While the MRC data indicates substantial coverage of the race for the White House, Tyndall found that a mere 32 minutes combined was spent by the three networks this year on public policy issues.
That compares to 220 minutes in the 2008 campaign – seven times as much – even though Barack Obama’s historic bid at that time to become the nation’s first black president swallowed up far more media attention than the 2016 prospect of Clinton emerging as the first female president.
“Of the 32 minutes total, terrorism (17 mins) and foreign policy (7 mins) towards the Middle East (Israel-ISIS-Syria-Iraq) have attracted some attention. Gay rights, immigration and policing have been mentioned in passing,” Tyndall reported.
“No trade, no healthcare, no climate change, no drugs, no poverty, no guns, no infrastructure, no deficits. To the extent that these issues have been mentioned, it has been on the candidates’ terms, not on the networks’ initiative.”
