For the past month the big three broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) have hammered both Congressional Republicans and President Trump with a wall of negative shutdown coverage, while largely shielding Democrats from blame for the now-historic gridlock.
MRC analysts examined every evening newscast on ABC, CBS, and NBC between October 1 and October 31, 2025. Across the 67 reports and news briefs which discussed the government shutdown, 87 percent of the coverage favored Democrats. Analysts found 83 evaluative statements in which anchors or reporters were critical of Republicans, but just twelve criticizing Democrats.
Summary of Findings
- Broadcast shutdown coverage heavily favored Democrats over Republicans (87% to 13%).
- Only 12 reports (less than one fifth) even mentioned that Senate Democrats had refused to vote for a clean continuing resolution.
- Not a single report mentioned that Democrats voted back in March to end the same Obamacare subsidies which they’re now demanding.
Democrats Routinely Shielded from Blame
Coverage across all three networks was conspicuously vague about how the shutdown even had occurred. There were only 12 instances in which any of the three outlets hinted that Senate Democrats had voted repeatedly against a continuing resolution. On both ABC and CBS, only 12.5 percent of reports on either network mentioned this basic detail. On NBC, that fact was included in just 31 percent of newscasts.
Reports often included lines about the Trump administration “pressuring Democrats,” or soundbites of Republicans demanding Democrats “fund the government,” but usually stopped short of explicitly acknowledging that Senate Democrats were the ones preventing a funding bill from passing.
For example, in an October 30 report on NBC Nightly News, senior correspondent Tom Costello noted: “Delta and United [Airlines] also urged Congress to pass a clean resolution, known as a CR, to end the shutdown.”
But at no point did Costello clarify that these two airlines just had effectively endorsed the efforts of Congressional Republicans, encouraging Senate Democrats to settle for a continuing resolution. All viewers heard was that they were “urging Congress,” giving the false impression that the continuing resolution faced bipartisan opposition.
(The following morning on Today, Costello did note that the airlines had endorsed the GOP position, but that detail never made it into an evening newscast).
Such murky language was also commonplace on ABC World News Tonight. On October 26, correspondent Alex Presha remarked ambiguously that “a vote to fund the government has failed in the Senate 12 times,” without mentioning the partisan breakdown of those unsuccessful votes.
Coverage Framed Democrats as Humanitarian Champions
Analysts identified 21 instances in which reporters tried to justify Democrats’ demands while also omitting that those demands were the reason the government was not being funded. ABC alone was responsible for fourteen (66.7%) of those remarks. Below are some examples:
“Democrats want Republicans to reverse Medicaid cuts and extend expiring Obamacare subsidies, so health insurance premiums don’t go up for millions of Americans, like Kristen Furman Simmons in Kennebunkport, Maine, who’s battling MS… She says if the Obamacare subsidies expire, her premiums could go up 169 percent.”
— ABC News senior political correspondent Rachel Scott, October 2.
“Democrats want to keep Obamacare subsidies so health insurance doesn’t go up for millions, but there’s been no movement on this.”
— World News Tonight anchor David Muir, October 15.
“Democrats fighting for an extension of Obamacare tax credits, which would keep premiums from skyrocketing for some 20 million Americans.”
— ABC News Washington correspondent Jay O’Brien, October 28.
Additionally, on October 8, NBC Nightly News aired a dedicated 124-second long report about healthcare costs, in which correspondent Christine Romans directly tied the issue to the shutdown.
Broadcast reporters also frequently laundered common Democrat talking points as their own objective For example, we found twelve instances in which House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) refusal to call the House back into session was framed as a major cause of the shutdown — a frequent argument by Congressional Democrats.
Republicans received no such friendly treatment. Not a single journalist on any of the three networks voiced the popular Republican talking point that Senate Democrats earlier this year had voted in favor of a continuing resolution which contained the same cuts to healthcare subsidies for which they were now keeping the government closed.
A Far Cry from Past Shutdowns
Back during the 2013 government shutdown, when Democrats controlled both the White House and the Senate, the broadcast networks aired 41 reports blaming Republicans. Just 17 stories blamed both sides, and there was not a single instance in which any broadcast journalist specifically blamed Democrats.
But in 2025, with Republicans in control of both chambers and the White House, there were only ten reports that blamed Democrats exclusively. That’s less than one-third of the blame they heaped on Republicans back in 2013. Wilder still, analysts found four instances in which journalists blamed Republicans for the current shutdown.
