When President Trump first tapped Kash Patel to serve as FBI Director in late 2024, broadcast networks ABC, CBS, and NBC attempted to sink the nascent nomination with a tsunami if one hundred percent-negative coverage. But despite not receiving all that many headlines for a Trump administration official, Patel hasn’t still managed to receive one iota of friendly coverage from those same three networks.
MRC analysts examined all flagship morning and evening shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC since January 1, 2026, finding 82 instances in which Patel’s name came up in on-air reports. Among those cases were a total of 53 evaluative statements made by reporters, journalists, or other non-political figures.
Every single one of them was negative.
As far as positive/negative studies go, the breakdown by network was relatively predictable: ABC had the most, and CBS had the fewest. ABC was responsible for 22 of the 53 negative editorial remarks about Patel, followed by NBC with 17, and then CBS with 14.
Despite the disparity in the amount of time each network paid to Patel, there were some observable trends across all three that helped produce this horrendous 100 percent-negative outcome. For example, all three networks were fond of reminding and re-reminding their audience that the FBI Director’s official travel was paid for by the American taxpayer. Incidentally, this quirk began to appear right around the same time that Congressional Democrats began putting Patel’s international trips under a microscope in hearings and press conferences.
In late April, The Atlantic published a lengthy piece about Patel, relying almost exclusively on anonymous sources, which alleged Patel had “behavioral issues” and inappropriate drinking habits. When Patel publicly denied the report and filed a $250 Million defamation suit against the Atlantic, all three networks described his reaction as one might a child’s tantrum.
On April 21’s Today show, NBC News chief justice correspondent Kelly O’Donnell opined that Patel was simply “channeling his anger at the media into a 19-page lawsuit.” In separate reports about the case, O’Donnell variously described the $250 million figure as “eye-popping” and “staggering.” She and others also accused Patel of “lashing out” at reporters.
The next day, following remarks by Patel about his lawsuit at an unrelated press conference, Good Morning America co-host Robyn Roberts scoffed: “It was during a press conference that he made these comments, and it was a press conference to announce federal charges against a prominent civil rights organization!”
Roberts was referring to a still-ongoing federal lawsuit against the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), in which the far-left lawfare outfit has been accused of funneling money to “hate groups” for dubious purposes. Despite the seriousness of the charges, Roberts’s tone seemed to imply that the lawsuit’s very existence was evidence of Patel’s supposed irrationality.
Usually for these studies, we provide a handful of examples of the few positive remarks uttered about the subject in question. But since the coverage of Patel was so uniformly negative, below are some quotes about other individuals that did meet the criteria to qualify as positive evaluative statements.
- In late 2024, during the same transition period in which the recently-nominated Patel received 100 percent negative coverage, broadcast journalists treated then-Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth to four positive statements — all of which were direct quotes of his mother remarking that although he had gotten into trouble in the past, he was a “changed man.”
- Back in April, during a torrent of mostly-negative coverage of the (still-ongoing) war with Iran, we credited ABC’s Jonathan Karl for pointing out that Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz was “causing oil prices to soar around the world…”
Even by these loose standards, Patel has received no positive sentiment from the big three broadcast networks.
One domain in which one might expect an FBI director to eke out some positive headlines would be the apprehension of dangerous criminals. And indeed, 2026 has had plenty of apprehensions from which to choose. In April, an ABC affiliate ran a story about a successful operation that resulted in the arrest of more than 350 human traffickers and sexual abusers.
But while ABC’s flagship morning and evening shows skipped this venture, dubbed Operation Iron Pursuit, they did find time in January to run two segments about the apprehension of a former Olympic snowboarder turned-drug kingpin named Ryan Wedding. But Wedding was one scalp for which the FBI could not take direct credit, because the former Olympian had taken the unusual step of turning himself in at a police station in New Mexico.
Somehow, amid a noted surge in drug busts and apprehensions of human traffickers by federal agents, ABC managed to find the one drug kingpin who’d decided to walk into a police station of his own accord. Although both of their reports did mention that Patel was present when Wedding was handed over to Canadian authorities, the talking heads made sure to clarify that Wedding had turned himself in.
CBS and NBC were similarly unable to squeeze Operation Iron Pursuit into their morning and evening newscasts. However, the latter network did manage to find enough time to air clips from two of the three instances in which comedian Aziz Ansari portrayed Kash Patel on Saturday Night Live this past year.
As with many subjects the broadcast media openly dislike, their coverage of Kash Patel only looks worse when contrasted with a suitable analogue. When the FBI was being run by a swamp denizen who proclaims under oath that Antifa is merely “an idea,” the broadcast networks are more than happy to credit his agency for their work. Now that it’s being run by an outsider who spent the last few years savagely criticizing the previous guy, viewers get little more than anonymously-sourced innuendo, comedic impressions, and complaints about air travel.
