MRC’s Contributing Writer Stephanie Hamill was a guest on Friday’s Fox News at Night with host Trace Gallagher to discuss how the media is covering the Iowa caucuses and the 2024 election. 
During the segment Hamill brought up former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s recent comments about ‘chaos’ following former President Donald Trump after reacting to Kentucky Senator Rand Paul's 'never Nikki' campaign.
But does chaos actually follow Trump or is the media manufacturing it?
We’ll let you decide.
Check out the MRC’s latest analysis which shows the incredible amount of Trump bashing going on during the evening broadcasts on ABC, CBS, and NBC as the 2024 election heats up.
Gallagher: In the meantime I want to put this up because this is Senator Rand Paul saying that he is a never Nikki voter. Watch.
Sen. Rand Paul Video: I don't think any informed or knowledgeable libertarian or conservative should support Nikki Haley. I've seen her attitude towards our interventions overseas. I've seen her involvement in the military industrial complex.
Gallagher: Stephanie Hamill, you don't generate backlash and hate unless you have touched a nerve and it appears Nikki Haley has touched a few nerves along the way.
Hamill: Yeah, I wasn't expecting to see a non-endorsement coming from senator Rand Paul. I mean, he didn't endorse any candidates right? He said he liked a little bit of what all the candidates are saying but he wanted to be clear he is not a fan of Haley. With that he said he has concerns about, quote, "forever wars" and how she supports that. Also concerns about her ideas and desires to have people name themselves before they use social media, which he thought was an invasion of privacy.
What I thought was interesting too is you'll often hear a lot of people supporting Nikki Haley saying they want to see decency in the White House and Haley also says she believes chaos follows trump everywhere.
The Media Research Center released a study this week....Trace: Very quickly.
Hamill: It showed 91% of the news coverage on Trump from the mainstream media networks was negative.
Trace: Well we know that.
Hamill: I don't know if the 'chaos' is a Trump issue or a media issue, I think it will happen to other republicans as well.
Trump apparently is in the crosshairs of the mainstream media again, as he received 91% negative coverage from evening newscasts from January 1 through December 31, 2023, including weekends.
It would be safe to assume if Trump wasn’t in the lead, the coverage would still be negative toward any other top conservative candidate based on mainstream media coverage history.
According to MRC's analysis Florida Governor Ron DeSantis received 73% negative coverage, while Haley fared better with only 50% negative.
MRC analysts looked at all coverage of the Republican candidates on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts from January 1 through December 31, 2023, including weekends. Among the key findings:
■ In 2023, Trump received 1,192 minutes of evening news airtime, or 79% of all GOP candidate coverage. Top challengers Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley were far behind, with 166 and 35 minutes of airtime last year, respectively.
■ The networks trashed Trump with ferociously hostile coverage: 91% negative, vs. just 9% positive (scroll to read methodology). DeSantis and Haley fared better, but neither received more good press than bad. Coverage of DeSantis was 73% negative vs. 27% positive; Haley’s press was split down the middle: 50% negative and 50% positive.
■ Campaign trail discussion of substantive issues such as the economy, immigration and abortion were buried under an avalanche of media attention to Trump’s legal cases. The evening newscasts devoted 992 minutes to Trump’s various legal problems in 2023, eight times more than was spent on all policy issues combined (121 minutes).
Unfortunately the viewers of these networks are being deprived of substantive information regarding all of the presidential candidates and the policies discussion that should be had as the American people begin to head to the polls.
