Research

For 90 minutes Tuesday night, the media spotlight will be aimed squarely at Indiana Governor Mike Pence and Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, the Republican and Democratic vice presidential candidates. And, unless one of them makes a colossal mistake during their debate, it will probably be the last time either candidate gets much national TV attention this year.

Not since Ross Perot in 1996 has a third-party presidential candidate polled as strongly as Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson is right now — he’s currently averaging more than eight percent, according to RealClearPolitics. At the same time, other polls show record levels of voter disapproval for the Democratic and Republican nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. In spite of this, the…

The network evening and morning shows seem to have badly misplaced priorities. ABC, CBS and NBC have already devoted 10 times more coverage to the Olympic swimmer “scandal” than they did the bombshell admission that the Obama administration linked the release of four American prisoners and a $400 million payment to Iran. 

Shocking news broke Thursday that the handoff of the $400 million cash payment to Iran was a highly coordinated endeavor and did not occur until the American hostages were safe. These new details lend farther evidence to the argument that the cash was a ransom payment. But when it came to reporting this development the “Big Three” networks barely gave it anytime at all.

When a white supremacist endorsed Trump, the broadcast networks blamed Trump for it. But when the radical father of a terrorist endorsed Hillary and showed up in the front row of one of her rallies, these same networks quickly dismissed it as nothing worth worrying about. During the first three days of coverage after David Duke endorsed Donald Trump back in February, the evening news shows on ABC…

Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton should have been forced to deal with campaign messes on Tuesday, but the three networks only treated the Republican’s problem as a huge gaffe worthy of extensive coverage. ABC, CBS and NBC deluged viewers with five times more coverage — 25 minutes and 35 seconds versus 4 minutes and 41 seconds —  to Trump’s “Second Amendment people” remark than they did to…

To ABC and NBC, a Donald Trump misstatement is worth reporting multiple times, but a falsehood by Hillary Clinton isn’t worth a second of coverage. On July 11, Hillary Clinton grossly distorted FBI Director James Comey’s statement on her handling of classified email during a CBS News interview. She restated this assertion to host Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.

It seems like the only way a military family can get media attention these days is by bashing Donald Trump. On the evening shows of August 1 and the morning shows of August 2, the broadcast morning and evening news shows spent an additional 29 minutes and 53 seconds on the speech by family of slain U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan at the Democratic National Convention, while the same shows only…

Two weeks ago at the Republican National Convention (RNC) a grieving mother blasted Hillary Clinton for the debacle of the 2012 Benghazi attack. Last Thursday, at the Democratic National Convention (DNC), grieving parents gave a speech criticizing Donald Trump for his statements against Muslims. While all the grieving parents deserve sympathy, the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) network evening and…

With both the Republican and Democratic conventions now concluded, it’s time to judge the news media on how fairly they covered the two parties. Media Research Center analysts looked at various aspects of coverage, all of which demonstrate that journalists obviously favored the Democratic gathering.

Even before Indiana Governor Mike Pence was selected as the GOP vice presidential candidate, all three broadcast networks instructed viewers that he was a "staunch conservative" and "social conservative" who was "popular with the Tea Party." But those same networks are now advertising Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton's choice to be the Democrats' vice presidential candidate, as a "…

It’s been a day and a half since the establishment liberal media sank their jaws into the Melania Trump “plagiarism” story, and they are showing few signs of letting go, with heavy coverage on the broadcast networks’ Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning news shows. Eight years ago, however, when a similar flap threatened then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, the broadcast networks…

Here's a safe prediction about this week's Republican National Convention: TV reporters will paint the GOP as too conservative, hostile to women, anathema to blacks, and an all-around turn-off to voters. And that's not just because the ever-controversial Donald Trump is set to be nominated as the party's presidential candidate. Going back to the 1988 convention, the MRC has documented how…

Today, the eighth and final installment of NewsBusters’ special report, “Hillary Clinton’s Media Fan Club,” documenting how the media have helped fuel Clinton’s political campaign by showering her with fawning news coverage, even as they discredit her critics. Today, we document how the entertainment media is also firmly on Hillary’s side, and have also championed her presidential aspirations for…