Despite the growing trend of leftwing extremist violence during the first six months of the Trump administration (including the DC Jewish Museum shooting, the firebombing a GOP building in Albuquerque, and the anti-deportation riots Los Angeles), talking heads on TV news remained reluctant to acknowledge the existence of the American far left. However, those same journalists had no qualms about slapping a “far right” label on practically anything they deemed to be right of center.
MRC analysts examined all coverage on liberal cable (CNN and MSNBC) and broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS) from January 21 through June 21, 2025, recording every instance in which a journalist or nonpartisan guest used an extreme political label. During that time period, labels such as “far right” were used a whopping 1,222 times. Conversely, “far left” and similar terms were used just 86 times.
We found no such labels used on the flagship morning or evening shows of any of the “big three” broadcast networks. Thus, all of our data for this study is limited to coverage on CNN, MSNBC, and PBS.
Summary of Findings:
- Over the past six months, CNN, MSNBC, and PBS have used the terms “far right” (or something similar) 1,222 times, and “far left” 86 times.
- Broadcast networks ABC, CBS, and NBC used no such labels in any of their flagship morning or evening newscasts.
- PBS was 42 times more likely to deem someone or something “far right” than “far left.”
- Across CNN, MSNBC, and PBS combined, the GOP was deemed far right 81 times, while Democrats were called far left only once.
- Political violence was 5.5 times more likely to be brought up in association with the far right.
PBS was the most slanted in their application of political epithets. The taxpayer-funded network referenced the “far left” just three times, and the “far right” 127 times — an absurd 42-to-one ratio. MSNBC, which aired the most extreme labels across the board, identified some person or entity as “far right” 718 times, and as “far left” just 39 times (an 18-to-one disparity). While CNN was the most evenhanded, their 377 labels for the “far right” still dwarfed the 44 which they applied to the far left, by a ratio of just over 8.5 to one.
The most frequently-labeled entities were as follows:
1) The German Alternative für Deutschald (AfD) party: 278 times
2) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government: 129 times
3) Conservative influencer Laura Loomer: 105 times
4) Various other political parties throughout Europe: 103 times
5) The Republican Party: 81 times
Journalists’ inconsistent application of labels was particularly pronounced in their coverage of America’s two major political parties. While the Republican Party was deemed “far right” a whopping 81 times, the Democratic Party was slapped with a “far left” label just a single time.
The situation was much the same with politics abroad. While the German Alternative für Deutschald (AfD) party was smeared with an extreme label a mind-boggling 278 times, their far-left counterpart, the Social Democratic Party, was thusly described on a mere four occasions. This despite the historic gains enjoyed by both parties, particularly among young voters, in Germany’s February election.
The topic of political violence was also subject to a wild imbalance. Talking heads discussed politically-motivated attacks in connection with the right on 44 separate instances, but only eight times for the left. Furthermore, In half of those instances, the term “far left” was only deployed so that the speaker could dismiss the notion that the left even ought to be associated with political violence. We found no similar cases involving terms like “far right.”
In fact, among the 86 utterances of terms like “far left,” just over one quarter of them (22) were dismissals, either of the notion that the far left was responsible for something, or that the particular entity being discussed even fit the definition. In another 35 of the remaining 64 cases, the far left was mentioned in tandem with the far right (i.e. “whether you’re far left or far right…”).
The corporate media’s well-documented habit of withholding political identifiers for the left, while zealously applying them to the right, does not appear to have changed much since the 2024 election. But if the extreme behavior from the far-left over the past few months continues, cracks may begin to form in the trend. At the very least, the restraint shown by ABC, CBS, and NBC in their withholding of extreme labels for both sides is a promising start.
