After Thursday’s network evening newscasts devoted 28 times more coverage to Donald Trump’s offensive tweets than to important immigration reform legislation, on Friday, the morning shows on ABC, NBC, and CBS offered even more lopsided reporting. Combined, ABC’s Good Morning America, NBC’s Today, and CBS This Morning devoted a staggering 52 times the amount of coverage to the President’s social media attack than to Kate’s Law passing the House.
As NewsBusters analyst Nicholas Fondacaro calculated, the network evening news on Thursday provided 12 minutes 14 seconds of airtime on Trump’s tweets targeting MSNBC anchor Mika Brzezinski, but only NBC Nightly News featured a 26-second news brief on the House passage of two immigration bills – Kate’s Law and another cracking down on sanctuary cities.
Friday morning’s broadcasts amped up the outrage over the Presidents tweets, with a stunning 24 minutes 17 seconds on the topic. All three led with the story. Only CBS This Morning mentioned the pair of immigration polices in a 28-second news brief during the 7:30 a.m. ET hour from fill-in co-host David Westin:
The Washington Post reports the House passed two bills that crack down on illegal immigration. Kate’s Law steps up prison sentences for convicted criminals who reenter the United States illegally after having been deported. And the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act bars sanctuary cities that do not cooperate with I.C.E., that’s the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, from receiving many federal grants. It also leaves them vulnerable to liability in lawsuits from victims of illegal immigrants’ crimes. Both bills require passage now in the Senate.
In contrast, the CBS show included 4 minutes 54 seconds on Trump’s tweets.
While neither ABC’s GMA nor NBC’s Today bothered to inform viewers of the legislative push on immigration, both shows found plenty of air time for the Twitter fight. GMA featured a whopping 12 minutes 14 seconds on the controversy and Today offered 7 minutes 9 seconds.
In other words, the short shrift given to a Republican legislative accomplishment remained the same from the night before while denunciation of the President grew louder.
The obsessive tweet coverage was brought to viewers by Honda, Colgate, and Toyota.
