The word “controversial” is often a word used to signal to viewers that someone is politically radioactive. So naturally, the liberal minds in “public” broadcasting must use it in a tilted way.
To see if there was a biased trend, a Nexis search of PBS News Hour transcripts from November 1, 2024 through April 20, 2025 showed the adjective “controversial” was almost completely reserved for Donald Trump and his cabinet appointees in statements by PBS journalists. (We did not include a few uses of the word by guests.)
In 54 uses of the C-word on PBS in this study period, 45 of them (83 percent) were applied to Team Trump or the Republicans. For Democrats, President Biden drew one “controversial” on January 3 for his decision to block Nippon Steel’s attempt to buy US Steel – a position he shared with Trump! That’s 45 to 1. Put an asterisk on the 1.
Two other uses were about conservatism: New Zealand’s “most conservative” government was allegedly “rolling back” policies to aid the Maori minority, and Colorado banned “conversion therapy” to curb homosexual identity.
On the January 30 edition of News Hour on January 30 of this year used the C-word four times. Co-anchor Amna Nawaz opened the show: “President Trump's controversial picks to head national intelligence, the FBI, and Health Department all face tough questions in their confirmation hearings.”
A few minutes later, reporter Laura Barron-Lopez hit the mark again: “In another hearing room this morning, the fate of another controversial pick, Kash Patel, President Trump's nominee to head the FBI.”
Co-anchor Geoff Bennett then talked to congressional reporter Lisa Desjardins about a RFK Jr. hearing: “And there was another controversial moment today that centered on 9/11 and conspiracy theories? Tell us about that.” He then summarized with her: “So these three nominees today, RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, controversial by any normal standard, but we're not living in normal political times. I mean, will they have the votes?” They did.
So we decided to match that with PBS coverage of the incoming Biden administration four years ago, from November 2020 to April 20, 2021. Maybe the trend went in the opposite direction? No. There were only 17 uses of “controversial” in those transcripts. But even then, 10 of the 17 (59 percent) were applied to Trump or his team.
By contrast, Democrats had two. It was 10 to 2. There was one “controversial” for Neera Tanden on February 22, 2021 as her nomination to lead the Office of Management and Budget began to crumble. Then on April 16, 2021, Jonathan Capehart said President Biden set a deadline for withdrawing for Afghanistan, which is “very controversial,” but Capehart added, “I give him credit for making a very tough decision.”
Back then, Trump drew two "controversials" on PBS for his pardons. In 2025, Biden's pardons were not "controversial."
