With early voting already underway, the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) networks have filled up their evening news shows with campaign stories that seem like they’re meant to dissuade conservatives from going to the polls this month.
They’ve also dutifully avoided (for the most part) talking about scandals and gaffes of Democratic candidates.
A Media Research Center study of ABC, CBS, and NBC evening newscasts for the past month (September 28 - October 26) found that they filled their campaign stories with (56 minutes, 44 seconds) of bad news to just (18 minutes, 53 seconds) of negative news for Democrats. So audiences getting their campaign news from the broadcast evening news programs, and all the online news feeds which feature their content, were three times as likely to see negative news about Republicans than Democrats.
MRC analysts timed statements by anchors, reporters, politicians and voters to determine what themes were being pushed in their campaign stories.
Evening Newscasts Hype Bad News for Republicans
Network evening news shows kept pushing the narrative of this being a bad cycle for Republicans, as they pushed the themes of Republicans running scared in red states, because of the dark cloud hanging over them of low approval polls for Trump; high gas and grocery prices; and the Iran war.
Overall, ABC’s World News Tonight spent the most amount of time (23 minutes, 49 seconds) on negative news for the Republicans this cycle. NBC Nightly News came in second with 16 minutes, 35 seconds of bad campaign news for the GOP. CBS Evening News wasn’t that far behind with 16 minutes, 20 seconds of midterm blues for Team MAGA.
The campaign story on the October 5 edition of CBS Evening News was typical of the coverage: Both CBS Evening News anchor Tony Dokoupil and correspondent Ed O’Keefe offered up the following doomcast for the GOP:
WATCH: A month out, the Elite Media evening news is locked on two types of political story: "Republicans in Disarray" or polling DOOM!1!1! pic.twitter.com/uTBB07kRI1
— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) October 6, 2026
TONY DOKOUPIL: Election Day is four weeks from tomorrow and President Trump is back on the campaign trail, not in an effort to gain ground on Democrats but to protect what has historically been Republican-friendly territory.
ED O’KEEFE: Tony, what’s notable about being in Nebraska tonight- this is the fifth Republican-controlled state the president has been in since last Thursday. Why all the focus on red states? Well, it’s designed to turn out the president’s base. He understands the GOP candidates are struggling because of the state of the economy. New CBS News polling shows 70 percent of voters say Trump’s policies are making prices go up.”
Another theme pushed was Republican candidates criticizing or running away from the President. All three networks reported on Politico releasing audio of Texas Senate Republican candidate Ken Paxton being critical of the President. On the October 5 edition of NBC Nightly News, correspondent Ryan Nobles played up the story:
RYAN NOBLES: Tonight, with Republicans under pressure before the midterms, new campaign criticism apparently aimed at the White House from a Trump-endorsed Republican candidate in the key state of Texas. Politico, citing two people at the event reporting Ken Paxton privately told donors last month his campaign is being run from D.C. instead of the Lone Star State. “I don’t control the message or what we’re doing,” he said. His campaign telling Politico Paxton was referring to outside SuperPACs, and Paxton recently blasted the president’s midterm convention.
Evening Newscasts Skip or Downplay Democratic Candidate Scandals
While there have been plenty of gaffes and scandals involving Democratic candidates this cycle, they’ve gone largely unreported on the evening news programs.
The following are just some of the gaffes and scandals that have gotten zero coverage on the Big Three evening newscasts:
- Minnesota Democratic Senate candidate Peggy Flanagan’s multiple connections to the fraud cases in Minnesota and her grade inflation scandal.
- Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra blatantly lied about his family background. During a September 30 CNN debate, Becerra claimed that his parents “came to this country with $12, and they settled in California.” He also told Ana Navarro his father came to America in his 20s with $12 in his pocket. But an obituary said his father was born in Sacramento.
- Maine Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Troy Jackson forced to apologize for anti-Israel comments. According to NBC News Center Maine (so NBC Nightly News producers were certainly aware): “Maine Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Troy Jackson is apologizing for comments he made this week in a NEWS CENTER Maine candidate profile interview about Israeli ‘genocide’ in Gaza. In reiterating his view that that the three-year-old Israel-Gaza war ‘is a genocide,’ Jackson said in the interview, ‘There are people here in Maine that don't like to use that term only because, you know, they're Jewish and, you know, what that means to them with the Holocaust.’
The evening newscasts did manage to spend (only) 18 minutes, 53 seconds on Democratic candidate scandals.
Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood were brought up in an interview with NBC News’ Tom Llamas. NBC Nightly News was the only newscast to bring up specific tweets from Sayed’s half-sister. So far, CBS Evening News and ABC World News Tonight haven’t touched the specific tweets.
Llamas managed to press El-Sayed in an interview aired on the October 14 edition of NBC Nightly News:
TOM LLAMAS: But newly revealed past tweets from El-Sayed’s half-sister appearing to call his answer into question. These tweets have emerged now. “Had an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college. #respect.”
MOHAMMED EL-SAYED: Talking about me? Me?
LLAMAS: “My family has long been MB.” Let me finish. “Praying for all my family that supports the MB in Egypt.” Can you just explain it?
Aside from Sayed’s scandal, the network evening news shows also mentioned the DOJ’s raid on Minnesota Democrat Representative Ilhan Omar’s Washington, D.C. home. Although they dutifully noted the supposed unprecedented nature of the timing, as expressed by correspondent Jay O’Brien on the October 12 edition of ABC’s World News Tonight: “The Justice Department traditionally avoids taking public steps in political investigations within 60 days of an election.” O’Brien also added Omar’s spin: “Tonight, Omar defiant, calling this ‘political intimidation’ and ‘an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement’, adding, ‘I will not be silenced.’”
Evening Newscasts Did Manage to Squeeze in Some Good News for Republicans
It should be mentioned that some good news for Republicans this cycle managed to get on the air, as it came mostly through soundbites from the President, Vice President J.D. Vance, administration spokespeople, GOP candidates and voters. But even then it only tallied 7 minutes of airtime. As for good news for the Democrats? It all came in the form of bad news for Republicans, as listed above.
The following piece from Nancy Cordes – aired on the October 1, CBS Evening News - is an example of good news for Trump that the newscasts mostly brushed past:
CORRESPONDENT NANCY CORDES: Trevor Theriot wouldn’t go quite that far today, but he did say things are going well for him.
TREVOR THERIOT: We’re growing at eight percent. To me, that’s success.
CORDES: Theriot owns a medical device manufacturing company here in Denton. He says the research and development credits in Trump’s “big beautiful bill” helped him a lot and that tariffs have incentivized him to build more of his products here in the U.S.”
Stories like this were the rare exception. By the newscasts primarily filling their campaign stories with doom and gloom for Republicans, while barely mentioning any of the bad news for Democrats, they’ve spun a narrative that promotes excitement among leftist voters and depression for conservative voters.
