On Thursday afternoon, Media Research Center Research Director Rich Noyes appeared on the Fox Business Network (FBN) and exposed the latest double standard by the liberal media harping on various controversies befalling Donald Trump while giving minimal time to the disturbing story about the U.S. giving Iran $400 million when the Islamic country released four captured Americans.
As Noyes revealed in the interview, the network disparity between the two stories has only continued to grow wider since The Wall Street Journal first broke the Iran story late Tuesday night.
As MRC news analyst Nick Fondacaro calculated, the Wednesday evening newscasts last night devoted just 5 minutes, 12 seconds to the Obama administration sending a plane full of cash to Iran, compared with 13 minutes, 46 seconds spent on various Trump controversies.
This morning's network newscasts were even more lopsided, dismissing the Iran story with just 2 minutes, 46 seconds of additional coverage, compared with 32 minutes, 13 seconds of additional Trump news. Add it all up, and that's nearly 46 minutes spent on Trump, vs. 8 minutes for the Obama-Iran story, a nearly six-to-one disparity.
Giving his prediction for the next 100 days to Cavuto: Coast to Coast fill-in host Charles Payne, Noyes explained that “we’re going to be hearing off a lot of the controversies involving Donald Trump and not very much at all about the different scandals involving Hillary Clinton” and including her lies on Fox News Sunday “that Director Comey never said she lied.”
As the one network admitted, Trump’s problems have given them cover to ignore Clinton’s trouble with the truth even though she has significant leads over Trump in most polls of the presidential campaign.
Payne brought up an intriguing point later on when he wondered if Trump should do more to prepare himself for gotcha interviews with liberal journalists who have been able to trap Trump on near countless occasion. In response, Noyes agreed and invoked former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos at ABC as an example:
I mean, he needs to, you know, or his advisers have to coach them. When he does an interview with George Stephanopoulos, former Clinton campaign official, former Clinton White House aide and George Stephanopoulos asked his reaction to the Khan family. He’s got to think, why would he be asking this question? What does he want to say and then say, you know, what keeps his campaign on message instead of getting off message.
Commenting finally on the latest MRC numbers that are referenced above, Noyes hammered home the necessity for the media to do their jobs in covering not just one presidential candidate but all of them while still holding the current President in check as well:
[L]ast night and this morning, it’s gotten a total of eight minutes of coverage. The Trump controversy has gotten 46 minutes of coverage. You know, President Obama speaking about it will keep it in the news for one more cycle, but I think the media has to do their job to provide oversight of the President and then Trump has to sort of organize his campaign to take advantage of these Democratic scandals and Democratic mistakes to amplify his message and put them on the defensive for once. Has Hillary Clinton, for example, been asked about this Iran deal. Does she agree with it? Does she disagree with it? You know, journalists have to ask her the question because, you know, she's got to be brought out of this, too.
The transcript of the segment from FBN’s Cavuto: Coast to Coast on August 4 can be found below.
FBN’s Cavuto: Coast to Coast
August 4, 2016
1:10 p.m. Eastern
CHARLES PAYNE: Well, as I just said, the media have been — has been pouncing on Donald Trump's campaign and anytime there are problems, they seemed to magnify them, but you know, they haven't been saying a whole lot about President Obama’s Iran problems or some of the things that we've seen from Hillary Clinton. Media watcher Rich Noyes says there’s a huge double standard out there. Rich, we’re used to double standards when it comes to Republicans and Democrats, but it feels like maybe this time around, it’s worse than ever, huh?
RICH NOYES: Oh, it certainly is. I mean, my guess is over the next 100 days, we’re going to be hearing off a lot of the controversies involving Donald Trump and not very much at all about the different scandals involving Hillary Clinton. I mean, Hillary Clinton went on Fox News Sunday and mischaracterized the FBI report about her, said that Director Comey never said she lied. In fact, that was his entire presentation — was the different things that she had said that weren't true and that got almost a completely free pass from the media and all we spent this week talking about is Trump getting in this squabble with the Gold Star family, Trump's campaign being in trouble. It's overshadowed, like you said, this Iran deal. It's just extraordinary that the media are so focused on going after Donald Trump and his problems that they are blind to what the president of the United States is doing and what the current Democratic nominee, currently the frontrunner according the polls, is doing — is just about this one guy.
PAYNE: Do think, though, that will change? I mean, listen, let’s face it, again, we are used to this. We’ve seen this now – maybe not to this degree. The animosity by the mainstream media is even worse than it was with Mitt Romney, but how would it change? Why would it change?
NOYES: Well, I am not sure it will change. You know, I guess the media might be sort of shocked into a different action if Donald Trump had a different demeanor over the next few days. They might sort of take notice of that and wonder what was going on with that and give it a lot of coverage as well, something more positive, but I think what’s really going to — the next thing that will change this race unless the candidates change is going to be the debates and that’s seven weeks away when he did a side-by-side comparison and that's a chance to talk about Hillary Clinton again and not just Donald Trump. It’ll be two of them side by side on the stage.
PAYNE: Now, what — how much does Donald Trump have to do in other words to fight back against this? When the knee-jerk reaction is to you know, the old New York knee-jerk reaction I'm going to get you right now, that actually plays into this, right? If you think about all the bigger so-called things that are boiled over, they all emanate from one-on-one interviews with very progressive media types and Donald Trump takes the bait.
NOYES: That's right. I mean, he needs to, you know, or his advisers have to coach them. When he does an interview with George Stephanopoulos, former Clinton campaign official, former Clinton White House aide and George Stephanopoulos asked his reaction to the Khan family. He’s got to think, why would he be asking this question? What does he want to say and then say, you know, what keeps his campaign on message instead of getting off message.
PAYNE: I can imagine if he ever said, you know, starts — if he doesn’t, you know, if he starts answering away that they didn’t think he would, can you just see their heads explode on live television?
NOYES: Yeah and that would be a story all by itself and it’d one that he wants told, not these stories that are undermining his campaign message.
PAYNE: Well, we’ve got President Obama coming up in about two or three hours. He will try and explain away the $400 million. It's going to be interesting to see just how much blocking and tackling the mainstream media does for this because it's such a coincidence. It's hard anyone would believe that this administration is telling the truth. Do you think this could be an opportunity for the mainstream media to be a little bit more honest?
NOYES: Well, I would, but again, this is a story, you know, it’s gotten, you know, last night and this morning, it’s gotten a total of eight minutes of coverage. The Trump controversy has gotten 46 minutes of coverage. You know, President Obama speaking about it will keep it in the news for one more cycle, but I think the media has to do their job to provide oversight of the President and then Trump has to sort of organize his campaign to take advantage of these Democratic scandals and Democratic mistakes to amplify his message and put them on the defensive for once. Has Hillary Clinton, for example, been asked about this Iran deal. Does she agree with it? Does she disagree with it? You know, journalists have to ask her the question because, you know, she's got to be brought out of this, too.
PAYNE: Yeah, I think she said it was all old news and that was it. Now follow-up. Nothing else. Rich, thank you very much. Appreciate it.
NOYES: Right.
