Since before President Trump was elected, supporters of his believed that the press has been obsessive in their coverage of the celebrity-turned-commander-in-chief.
Now, there’s more research that backs that claim up.
After the inauguration on January 20, the media has continued to provide more coverage of Trump’s first months in office than was covered in former-President Obama’s last two years combined. Research reveals that there’s been nearly non-stop negative coverage that far outweighs the positive or neutral coverage of the last seven months.
The Media Research Center analysts have determined that there were nearly 74 hours of airtime – or 39 percent of all evening news coverage – on ABC’s World News Tonight, CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News, per Newsbusters.
The study used the following criteria to come up with that figure:
“Methodology: Our measure of spin was designed to isolate the networks’ own slant, not the back-and-forth of partisan politics. Thus, our analysts ignored soundbites which merely showcased the traditional party line (Republicans supporting Trump, Democrats criticizing him), and instead tallied evaluative statements which imparted a clear positive or negative tone to the story, such as statements from experts presented as non-partisan, voters, or opinionated statements from the networks’ own reporters.”
“Using these criteria, MRC analysts tallied 1,567 evaluative statements about the Trump administration in June, July and August, of which 1,422 (91%) were negative vs. a mere 145 (9%) which were positive. Since Trump took office on January 20, there have been 4,144 such evaluative statements, of which 3,712 (90%) were negative, vs. 432 (10%) which were positive.”
Back in April, when the President gave the order to punish the Syrian regime for a chemical weapons attack, was the closest to “balanced coverage” that has been seen, with 82 percent negative and 18 percent positive news coverage.
In the early months of the Trump Administration – January to March – the rate at which White House news was being covered was 49 percent.
Over the last three months that figure has dropped considerably, currently at 32 percent. This is nearly three times as much coverage as the Obama administration received from 2015-2017, which the researchers pegged at 10 percent.
Russia, Russia…
One of four main topics related to Trump that the media focuses on is the ongoing investigation into the president and his campaigns alleged connection to Russia. During August, that topic took up 27 percent of all the Trump news coverage (415 minutes).
Several months ago, the Daily Business News posted an undercover video by Project Veritas. It spotlighted a CNN producer who said that the Russia collusion story was “bullsh-t.” Other research has reveals a similar trend to what this report produced.
That was followed by coverage related to the repeal and replace plan for ObamaCare, with 176 minutes, Trump and North Korea, with 136 minutes of coverage, and his response to the violent attacks in Charlottesville with 97 minutes.
Interestingly, the topic with the least media spin regarding how Trump handled a situation is North Korea, with only 86 percent negative press. In this particular case, the study found that most of that coverage was neutral.
This study provides a look into the gap between positive and negative news coverage of the president’s time in office so far. Many of the left-of-center publications are spending far more time bashing the president than anything else – with “relentlessly hostile coverage.” ## (News, Analysis.)
Related Political/Economic Topic:
2018, 2020 Campaigns Underway, Bernie & Jane Sanders, Scandals, and Democratic Party Rebranding
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