Coverage of Trump-Harris presidential race ‘most lopsided in history’, 85% negative for Trump: report

ABC, CBS and NBC News’ coverage of the presidential race between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris was the most “lopsided” in history, a new study released a week before the election found.

A Media Research Center (MRC) analysis released Monday found that since July, Harris has received 78% of positive coverage on the evening news, while Trump has been the subject of 85% of negative coverage on the same networks.

“The difference in coverage between the two candidates is much larger than in 2016, when both Trump and then-challenger Hillary Clinton received mostly negative coverage (91% negative for Trump vs. 79% negative for Clinton),” according to MRC analysts. .

For the third year in a row, more Americans “don’t trust” the media than those who do.

The difference between coverage of Trump and Harris is even greater than in 2020, “when Joe Biden received 66% positive coverage versus 92% negative coverage for Trump,” the study said.

MRC reported that ABC, CBS and NBC spent more than 200 minutes of airtime, much of it negative, highlighting controversies surrounding Trump while glossing over or, in many cases, completely ignoring controversies surrounding Harris, such as allegations of plagiarism and accusations to Harris. her husband Doug Emhoff.

Read on the Fox News app

“Instead, reporting on Harris was filled with glowing quotes from voters supporting Harris, creating a positive ‘vibe’ for the Democrat even as network reporters criticized Trump himself,” MRC wrote.

What are the latest Fox News polls for the 2024 election show?

Analysts analyzed more than 600 stories about the presidential race that aired on ABC, CBS or NBC from the day President Biden suspended his candidacy in late July until October 25.

MRC analysts found that after weeks of strong coverage of Harris as the Democratic candidate, the three networks appeared to change their tone following the Harris-Trump debate in September.

“The networks diverted attention away from Harris by spending significantly more airtime on Trump,” the report said.

“From the time Harris entered the race on July 21 through September 10, she received 353 minutes of network evening news coverage, virtually identical to the 355 minutes provided to Trump during the same period. Since then, however, television has received almost twice as much attention.” attention to Trump as Harris: 398 minutes for the former president, compared to just 230 minutes for the vice president,” the study said.

“The extra airtime for Trump was hardly intended as a gift. Instead, it reflected the networks’ intense focus on Trump controversies, providing opportunities for negative news coverage,” MRC said.

The study found that approximately 31% of the 753 evening news minutes spent on Trump since July 21 were devoted to his personal controversies. “That compares with barely five percent of Harris’ airtime (28 minutes of 583 minutes of reporting) spent on similar topics.

TV networks have repeatedly quoted Trump’s Jan. 6 claim that the 2020 election was fraudulent, calling it a “danger to democracy,” MRC reported.

By comparison, “Harris did not face the same onslaught. In fourteen weeks, evening news viewers heard just 5 minutes and 22 seconds of criticism of the Republican Party that it is too liberal, and that’s barely one-sixth of the airtime spent arguing that Trump is a “fascist.” None of these reports contained any criticism of Harris from either online reporters or nonpartisan sources,” MRC analysts found.

“Add it all up, and media coverage of the past three months is more lopsided than coverage of any presidential election in the modern media era,” the report said.

“So if Donald Trump retakes the White House next week, the media’s campaign against him will do nothing but further damage their own reputation.”

The MRC’s findings come shortly after Gallup research found that trust in the media remains both historically and persistently low. Only 31% of respondents expressed “a lot” or “fair” faith that the media will be able to cover the news correctly.

“For the third year in a row, more American adults don’t trust the media at all (36%) than trust it a lot or fairly. Another 33% of Americans express “not very much” confidence,” Gallup senior editor Megan. Brenan wrote.

ABC, CBS and NBC News did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News’ Alexander Hall contributed to this report.

Original article source: Coverage of Trump-Harris presidential race ‘most lopsided in history’, 85% negative for Trump: report