A new study for NewsBusters found the evening newscasts of ABC, CBS, and NBC have maintained their hypernegative coverage of Donald Trump since the New Hampshire primary over the last month or so. But now, it's pounding away on Trump's policy preferences and not just his legal troubles with Democrat prosecutors.
Longtime MRC research director (and now NewsBusters contributor) Rich Noyes explains his latest research of the evening-newscast coverage of the Republican campaign. After almost completely ignoring policy issues last year (only 8.6 percent of Republican campaign coverage), Trump's aggressive messages to other Republicans on immigration and on NATO roiled the media into outraged coverage of his influence on the GOP. It jumped to 24 percent of coverage in recent weeks.
While ABC's Mary Bruce claimed Trump attempted to "derail his party's top priority," NBC's Ryan Nobles looked at the polls: “Our new NBC News poll shows 57% of voters believe Mr. Trump would handle border security best; just 22% pick Mr. Biden.” No wonder reporters seem angry that bipartisanship didn't occur.
In 2023, our study found Trump accounted for 79% of all GOP candidate airtime against a fragmented field of challengers who all trailed him in the polls. Now that the race is down to just two major candidates, TV news is more Trump-focused than ever. The former President’s coverage now accounts for 84% of all GOP candidate airtime, with Haley accounting for just 16%. Reporters are barely evaluating Haley's campaign, which is a sign they don't take it as a serious threat to Trump.
Rich concluded that if Trump wins the South Carolina primary handily on Saturday as expected, "the next eight months of general election coverage seems clear: endless coverage bashing Trump not only for the legal cases brought against him, but also for the anti-establishment policies he would bring to a second term."
Enjoy the podcast below, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
