Study: Economic Boom Largely Ignored as TV's Trump Coverage Hits 92% Negative
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
In four weeks, Americans go to the polls for the midterm elections that the news media are casting as a referendum on the Trump presidency. Over the summer, the broadcast networks have continued to pound Donald Trump and his team with the most hostile coverage of a President in TV news history — 92 percent negative, vs. just eight percent positive.
For this report, MRC analysts reviewed all 1,007 evening news stories (1,960 minutes of airtime) about the Trump administration on ABC, CBS and NBC from June 1 to September 30, tallying the coverage of each topic and all evaluative comments made by anchors, reporters and non-partisan sources (such as voters or experts).
The results show that, over the past four months, nearly two-thirds of evening news coverage of the Trump presidency has been focused on just five main topics: the Russia investigation; immigration policy; the Kavanaugh nomination; North Korea diplomacy; and U.S. relations with Russia. The networks’ coverage of all of these topics has been highly negative, while bright spots for the administration such as the booming economy received extremely little coverage (less than one percent of the four-month total).
■ Once again, the ongoing Russia investigation received more evening news coverage (342 minutes) than any other individual topic. This does not include the 86 minutes spent on the Michael Cohen investigation and guilty plea, except for a few minutes talking about the possibility that Cohen would cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller.
Since the beginning of the Trump administration, the three networks have spent 1,975 minutes — nearly 33 hours — on the Russia investigation, or nearly 18 percent of all of their coverage of the Trump presidency. As we have previously reported , virtually all of that coverage has been negative, while almost none of it has focused on any of the controversies involving Mueller or his investigative team.
■ As we reported in July , the networks’ coverage of Trump’s immigration policies has been fiercely negative since the first days of his administration. That trend continued this summer, as the networks churned out 308 minutes of mostly (94%) negative coverage the administration’s immigration policies from June to September.
The networks’ attention to this topic has waned over the summer. In June, the three evening broadcasts spent 250 minutes on immigration, but that fell to just 35 minutes in July, 18 minutes in August and a mere five minutes in September as the Kavanaugh confirmation battle took over the airwaves.
■ After Brett Kavanaugh was announced the night of July 9, the networks gave his nomination relatively little airtime. From July 10 through September 6, the three evening newscasts together spent a mere 32 minutes on the Kavanaugh confirmation battle.
That changed on September 13, when the first anonymous allegations against Kavanaugh were revealed. From then until the end of September, the networks produced an additional 249 minutes of coverage centered on accusations of youthful sexual misconduct, or roughly eight times more than was devoted to the earlier debate about Kavanaugh’s judicial record and philosophy. [This heavy coverage continued in early October, leading up to the Senate’s approval of Kavanaugh’s nomination on October 6.]
The chart (above) reflects only the evaluative (82% negative) statements about how President Trump and his team handled the Kavanaugh nomination, including criticism of the President for dismissing the accusations, and for supposedly limiting the scope of the FBI probe.
Comments about Kavanaugh himself were far more numerous, but just as negative (83%) — nearly all of it focused on the late September misconduct allegations. His performance at the first round of hearings actually earned praise from journalists, especially CBS’s Jan Crawford, who enthused on the September 6 Evening News : “The main takeaway is that Judge Kavanaugh, he is performing well....It’s almost like he’s giving a judicial seminar on these areas of the law.”
Once the coverage moved to the sexual assault allegations, reporters offered nightly recitations of the highly inflammatory (and uncorroborated) charges against Kavanaugh, including that he enabled gang rapes of high school girls in the early 1980s. It is impossible to recall the networks ever giving publicity to a more damning accusation that had not either originated from law enforcement or at least been corroborated by journalistic investigation.
■ The evening newscasts spent 179 minutes on the administration’s diplomacy with North Korea, much of it focused on the June 12 summit between Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. In a one-week period from June 9 to June 15, the networks spent a combined 96 minutes on North Korea, or more than half of the total for the four months we examined.
Reaction to the summit was initially somewhat positive — CBS’s expert Mike Morell, a former Obama administration official, pronounced on the June 12 Evening News that it was “a diplomatic win for the United States,” but cautioned that “we are far from a strategic win.”
As the weeks wore on, reporters focused on the lack of specific progress, leading to the 90 percent negative spin on this topic. On the September 10 Nightly News , for example, Andrea Mitchell highlighted the negative take of NBC News Korean Affairs analyst Victor Cha, who declared: “If the President is saying one thing, but the intelligence is showing something else, it’s hard to believe that the diplomacy is working.”
■ The networks spent 151 minutes on the Trump administration’s approach to Russia, virtually all of it (99%) negative. As with the North Korean summit, the networks’ interest peaked in the days surrounding President Trump’s July 16 summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with nearly 70 percent of the coverage (107 minutes) taking place during the seven days between July 13 and July 19.
Unlike with North Korea, the networks’ immediate reaction was negative. On the July 16 Nightly News , NBC’s Andrea Mitchell exemplified the media elite’s scolding tone: “He [President Trump] showed he was not willing to stand up to the Russian leader....It is profoundly demoralizing to American intelligence professionals and diplomats around the world.”
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Amid this sea of coverage, the networks spent almost no airtime — a mere 14 minutes, or 0.7 percent — on the administration’s economic achievements, including the positive effects of the tax cuts and deregulation, plus historic job growth. Indeed, the only aspect of the Trump economic program that interested the networks during the past four months has been the President’s use of tariffs to push for better trade deals (80 minutes).
Coverage of Trump’s trade policy emphasized the downside: potential higher costs to consumers or the possible harm to industries that rely on foreign imports, as opposed to the potential for job growth or higher wages for American workers. That made the spin of trade news nearly as negative as the other major topics (88% negative), overwhelming the positive (89%) but puny coverage of the broader economic record.
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Understand that this thread/seed/article won't get much coverage - it ain't against Trump or Russia or Immigration or Kavanaugh or North Korea or Putin, so quite a few of the NT'rs . . . . . . .
So, WTF does the media think they have the right/authority to totally denigrate the President of the U. S. - and continue walking tall?????
Why can the president call people evil and some look the other way while wondering why he gets bad press.
Trump has never said anything, one tenth as bad as the what left has actually done
Excellent article. It is looking at network news - which is supposed to have the least opinion vs raw news (news vs cable's news shows). There it is. The MSM has demeaned itself to get Trump. People are smarter than the left gives them credit for. The people know it.
Its called freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press. (Those are rights common to most democracies). The way our government is set-up, the U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and those rights are enshrined in our Constitution.
(And part of these rights is the right for a media outlet to broadcast different opinions that the stations you mentioned. And in addition, those rights let citizens look at, and choose, the news outlets they prefer. And since we are a democracy and you have those rights-- you have the choice to avoid those 3 you just mentioned-- and you can watch , for example, a station such as Fox News-- without fearing the dreaded knock on the door from Trump's Justice dept-- you can watch Fox or similar outlets without fear of the government police hauling you away!
Not for Ford:
Given the coverage, it's a miracle his approval ratings aren't around 5%. I think it speaks to how well things are going that his ratings are as high as they are. It's incredibly brazen the way the media smashes Trump all day and night and then holds up the polls of people who watch their programs as proof of some kind of sober analysis of his performance.
Why do you think his coverage on stations such as Fox is so negative?
(And BTW in a past argument here, one of our more Conservative members (and a Trump supporter) posted data showing that Fox had more viewers than any other network....I assume those numbers he posted were not a lie!
So Kavanaugh being accused of sexual misconduct should be positive?
trump saying that him and rocket man are in love should be positive?
putin meddling and trying to interfere in our elections should be positive?
newsbusters is a rightwing blog site that claims liberal media bias in order to promote conservative causes.
It should be neutral, unless the accusations have some sort of proof. It turns out that they are really negative for the left. Wait, 4 more weeks!
Billions of Billions worth of network time have been dedicated to destroying Trump.
The media has never been a straight shooter when it comes to politics but in the past they at least made the effort to appear neutral. Those days are gone.
Now MSNBC talking heads blather on about Kavanaugh inaugurating a 1000 year Reich and it's just another day.
Sean, you know better. Some of these other people don't, but I suspect you do. In no way shape or form is Trump a good guy. He's a crook and he's a constant daily embarrassment to the United States of America.
Today he held a conference which was supposed to be about Nikki Haley resigning. As per usual he ended up making it about himself.
You mean Barry was on the show???
Why do have to keep going through this , time after time?
Why does Trump get bad coverage?
Because he's an asshole.
Because he's a crook. He's a fucking criminal for gods sake. 1st Warrior, do you really think he deserves good press?
I don't care if he walks up and puts a thousand dollar bill in my hand. he's a criminal. His family cheated the government out of 500 million dollars in taxes. And he was right in the damn middle of it all. He defrauded thousands of people with his "Trump University". He's a pathological liar. He's a sexual assaulter. He's a cheat. He's a crook. He's a criminal.
How the heck does he get 8% positive coverage? It should all be negative.
Negative president gets negative press... In other news, water is wet.
News at 11.
1) Russia attacked us, trump did nothing. Then praises Putin as a "strong leader".
2) Trump meets with Putin, insists on one on one meeting, 100% private. Why? And we still don't know what happened behind closed doors.
3) How many times has trump called putin a cute childish name like, "rocket man"? Never. How many times has trump attacked putin on twitter? Never. Why not? Remember, we know for a FACT that russia DID attack us and try to influence our elections.
But trump deserves positive press? Really?
This article is playing the, "it's everyone else that's wrong, not trump". News flash? It's trump, not everyone else that is wrong. Sorry.
Some will defend him blindly until the end. It is never his fault, always someone else.
Bingo. I have never heard trump apologize for anything since he has taken office and he has made PLENTY of mistakes that, like you said, he not only will not apologize for, he just blames someone else.
Gas-lighting-R-Us. It's a constant onslaught.
Yep!
That was Kim Ju Un who he called Rocket Man.
I am aware, my point was that he never calls Putin any childish names because...well... He is Putins bitch.
Excellent post.
I didn't read it but all the comments showed a strong CNN/MSNBC connection.
Let's see. The Whiner in Chief can attack and denigrate anyone and everyone but if there is blow back he being picked on...LMAO...Tuff shit.
ya mean like the year before he was elected?
msm suddenly has credibility?? too funny.
Trump yells and screams for his base to be non-pc, but the media and people who don't like trump aren't pc to him and he cries like a bitch. That's just......deplorable.
Donny? If you can't take it, don't dish it out....
That's mainly because the economy has been on the rise for the last 9 years. Did the right give Obama any credit? No, (in fact they complained about the economy doing better). But the left is supposed to fawn over trump who has literally done nothing to help the economy? Sorry. Doesn't work that way.
Going to bed - see ya manana.