Coverage of Donald Trump’s presidency on the three major TV networks—ABC, CBS, and NBC—was overwhelmingly negative in 2018, just as it was a year earlier, according to a study conducted by the Media Research Center.
Trump’s presidency was again the biggest story of 2018, as in 2017, with almost 87 hours, or 28 percent of all evening news airtime, dedicated to it. Those numbers were, in fact, lower than the 99 hours of coverage in 2017.
Strong Disconnect
In spite of what the president has done for economic growth, such as gains of more than 3 percent in the GDP and historically low unemployment rates—special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation was the single most covered news topic in 2018, garnering 858 minutes of airtime.Since Jan. 20, 2017, Mueller’s probe into alleged links between the Russian government and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign has received a combined total of 2,092 minutes of coverage across the three networks’ evening newscasts.
Network Spin
Just five topics were the focus of over half of Trump’s coverage on the three evening newscasts, according to MRC. The topics include the Russia investigation (858 minutes); immigration policy (643 minutes); the Kavanaugh nomination (435 minutes); dealing with North Korean nukes (410 minutes); and the Michael Cohen/hush-money investigation (341 minutes).An MRC chart highlighted how each network’s slant on the topics was again, overwhelmingly negative. The coverage ranged from 80 percent negative press on North Korea to 99 percent negative on the Cohen story.
Meanwhile, in December, the partial government shutdown gained 67 minutes of network airtime, or about one-fifth of the total coverage of Trump.
In that month alone, almost 97 percent of the broadcasting had a negative slant as to how the president handled the shutdown.
“The Fake News gets crazier and more dishonest every single day. Amazing to watch as certain people covering me, and the tremendous success of this administration, have truly gone MAD! Their Fake reporting creates anger and disunity,” he wrote on Jan. 14.
“Take two weeks off and come back rested. Chill!”