MRC Studies

A new report from the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University finds that it’s not just the news media that’s obsessed with Donald Trump. A study of jokes told by late night comedians finds that GOP frontrunner was the target of more punchlines (308) than the rest of the GOP field combined (282). And Republicans were targeted by more than twice as many jokes as Democrats…

Over the past four weeks, as the broadcast networks have covered the House leadership contest, reporters have gone out of their way to relentlessly paint House Republicans, especially the Freedom Caucus, as ideologues who are outside the American political mainstream. From September 25 to October 23, MRC analysts reviewed all 82 ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening news stories about John…

Since Donald Trump announced his presidential campaign exactly one month ago on June 16, ABC, CBS and NBC have aired a combined 31 evening news stories discussing his comment about illegal Mexican immigrants: “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” When then-President Bill Clinton was accused of rape, those same newscasts aired…

In May, as ISIS terrorists captured the cities of Ramadi and Palmyra, and with FBI warnings of hundreds of radicalized sympathizers here in the U.S., ABC, CBS and NBC devoted a combined 84.5 evening news minutes to ISIS. Despite the dour news, viewers heard virtually no criticism of President Obama’s handling of the terror group — just 43 seconds in a pair of NBC Nightly News stories, or less…

As President Obama’s approval ratings have tumbled in 2014, polling news has practically vanished from the Big Three evening newscasts — in stunning contrast to how those same newscasts relentlessly emphasized polls showing bad news for George W. Bush during the same phase of his presidency.

What’s the difference between a political scandal involving a Republican and one involving a Democrat? When it comes to news coverage, reporters almost always identify the political party of a Republican caught in a scandal, but when the culprit is a Democrat, the party label is usually left out of the story. There are exceptions to this rule, of course, but not many. To prove the point, here’…

Summary: After a partisan report last June absurdly suggested that progressive groups were just as likely to be scrutinized as conservative ones, ABC, CBS and NBC essentially abandoned their coverage of the IRS targeting scandal which broke one year ago this week. After producing 136 stories on their morning and evening news show during the first seven weeks of the scandal, broadcast news…