President Donald Trump brought up removing White House press credentials from “Fake News” media after a report showed evening news coverage of his presidency on network television has been overwhelmingly negative. All while his approval rating has been improving.
“The Fake News is working overtime,” Trump said in a tweet on Tuesday, May 9, morning. “Just reported that, despite the tremendous success we are having with the economy & all things else, 91% of the Network News about me is negative (Fake). Why do we work so hard in working with the media when it is corrupt? Take away credentials?”
Legacy media outlets have maintained primarily negative reporting on Trump’s presidency since its beginning.
The research shows that only 5 percent of media reporting during the first 60 days was positive. Negative stories were 62 percent, and 33 percent were neutral.
By comparison, coverage of President Barack Obama during the same time period was 42 percent positive and 20 percent negative. For President George W. Bush, the number was 22 percent positive and 28 percent negative. And for President Bill Clinton, it was 27 percent positive and 28 percent negative.
The study also revealed that most media coverage of Trump focused on his character traits rather than his policies.
Yet, in recent months, Americans increasingly like what Trump is doing.
Particularly among black people, Trump’s popularity more than doubled recently, from 11 percent on April 25 to 25 percent on May 3.
Whats more, he is now close to hitting 50 percent approval among independents.
Trump commented on his improving ratings during his May 4 speech at the annual National Rifle Association meeting.
“NBC NEWS is wrong again! They cite ‘sources’ which are constantly wrong. Problem is, like so many others, the sources probably don’t exist, they are fabricated, fiction! NBC, my former home with the Apprentice, is now as bad as Fake News CNN. Sad!” Trump stated in a tweet.
Trump has said multiple times he doesn’t consider all media untrustworthy.