Trump bashing overwhelms ABC, NBC, CBS evening newscasts, study shows
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Trump is backing a bipartisan term-limit plan from a group of House freshmen. (AP2018)
The mainstream media continues to bash President Trump regardless of his accomplishments.
A new study by the Media Research Center revealed that ABC’s “World News Tonight,” NBC’s “Nightly News” and CBS’ “Evening News” were especially hostile toward the administration during the first four months of 2018.
The MRC studied all evening newscasts on the big three networks from January 1 through April 30 and found that 90 percent of comments about Trump during that time were deemed negative.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The MRC, which bills itself as America’s leading media watchdog in documenting, exposing and neutralizing liberal media bias, examined 1,065 network evening news stories about President Trump and top members of his administration that aired through April 30 – which resulted in 1,774 minutes of total airtime.
The MRC tallied 598 statements about Trump’s personal controversies and a whopping 579 of them were negative, which is 97 percent of all coverage, according to the study. (AP)
The findings show that 39 percent of coverage focused on Trump “scandals and controversies,” and 45 percent was dedicated to “various policy issues.” The rest of the Trump-related airtime was spent on “controversies involving other top Trump officials, such as EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt,” according to the MRC.
The story about alleged Russian collusion was given the most attention, with 321 minutes spent on the story, while news related to adult film star Stormy Daniels and other women with allegations aimed at Trump took up 92 minutes of airtime.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}'The positive economic story is probably one reason why the public has rewarded Trump with higher approval ratings, despite the bad press'
“Network coverage of those topics, plus a host of other smaller controversies involving the President, was almost entirely negative,” MRC Senior Editor Rich Noyes wrote.
The MRC tallied 598 statements about Trump’s personal controversies and a whopping 579 of them were negative, which is 97 percent of all coverage, according to the study.
Among 542 “opinionated statements involving a policy matter,” 440 of them – 81 percent – were deemed negative, while 102 – or 19 percent – were considered positive.
“When it came to policy matters, the President fared somewhat better — but only in contrast,” Noyes wrote.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Among 542 “opinionated statements involving a policy matter,” 440 of them – 81 percent – were deemed negative, while 102 – or 19 percent – were considered positive.
“The networks’ spin on immigration, Syria and gun rights was extremely negative,” Noyes wrote. “And, despite the potential of a breakthrough with North Korea, the coverage of that topic was tilted two-to-one against the President.”
While conservatives have praised Trump for progress made regarding North Korea, the evening newscasts of ABC, CBS and NBC were negative about it 68 percent of the time, according to the study.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}One of the few areas that received positive coverage was new related to the economy – as long as it wasn’t about Trump’s decision to impose tariffs. New related to the tariffs were negative 90 percent of the time, according to the study. The rest of Trump’s economic agenda received 73 percent positive coverage.
“Yet this coverage has amounted to less than three percent of TV’s total coverage of the President this year,” Noyes concluded. “The positive economic story is probably one reason why the public has rewarded Trump with higher approval ratings, despite the bad press.”
Representatives from ABC, NBC and CBS did not respond to separate requests for comment.