STUDY: 92% of Network News Coverage of Trump Is Negative
According to the Media Research Center (MRC), 92% of the coverage from evening newscasts on ABC, NBC, and CBS was negative toward President Trump. The MRC analyzed ABC’s World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News, and CBS Evening News from January 20 through April 9 and found 899 stories that discussed President Trump or the Trump administration.
“Just 100 days into President Donald Trump’s second term, the broadcast evening news landscape is even more lopsided than it was eight years ago, when Trump was besieged with relentlessly hostile coverage,” researcher Rich Noyes wrote.
"The networks’ spin on Trump’s tariffs faced 93% negative coverage, while the DOGE cutbacks to government were greeted by 97% negative spin," Noyes explained.
"Even on immigration, the issue where the public gives the President his highest ratings, the networks’ spin was 93% negative," Noyes noted. "Out of nearly four hours of evening news airtime devoted to immigration, these newscasts spent just 3.5 minutes letting viewers know just how much Trump has reduced border crossings."
“Eight years ago, using the identical methodology, we found Trump was blasted with 89% negative coverage at the hands of these networks during the first weeks of his first term,” Noyes stated.
The study also noted that during a similar time period at the start of Biden’s presidency, he received 59% positive coverage from these same networks.
“Yet despite the overwhelming negativity of their coverage, the networks found Trump irresistible as a news subject, at least compared with Biden. From January 20 through April 9, 2017, the networks saturated their newscasts with 1,900 minutes of Trump news; during the same time period this year, we tallied a massive 1,716 minutes of coverage. But in 2021, evening news viewers saw only 726 minutes of Biden coverage during these same weeks — less than half of the airtime devoted to either of the new Trump administrations,” Noyes wrote.
This is yet another example of media bias against Trump and Republicans more broadly. It could also help explain why many approval polls for Trump have declined over the last few months, as so-called “educated” people are seemingly disproportionately responding to polls with their dissatisfaction with the administration.
This is why it’s important that Trump and members of his cabinet return to alternative platforms to get their message out to the public. These mainstream media outlets cannot be trusted to fairly cover the Trump administration.
