Broadcasters have been very kind to Donald Trump. The Republican presidential front-runner has dominated the news on CBS, NBC and ABC according to a meticulous analysis by Rich Noyes, senior editor for Newsbusters.com, a conservative media watchdog.
“The networks awarded Donald Trump far more airtime than any of his rivals. Over the past four months, Trump received three times as much TV news coverage as his closest rival, Ted Cruz, and a whopping 15 times as much as John Kasich,” Mr. Noyes said.
It is significant advantage, considering that the combined viewing audience for evening news on all three networks is about 25 million.
From January through mid-April, Mr. Trump was showcased in 62 percent of all primetime presidential coverage on the “Big Three” networks, for a total of 776 minutes. Mr. Cruz drew 20 percent, or 254 minutes, and Mr. Kasich 4 percent, or 52 minutes.
Mr. Trump’s coverage was over twice that of Democratic hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders combined — which amounted to 748 minutes between them. Neither Democrat dominated the coverage, the study found. By April, network interest in Mrs. Clinton’s campaign had dropped, leaving the two rivals almost neck and neck. Mrs. Clinton drew just over half the coverage; Mr. Sanders, 47 percent.
Mr. Noyes and his research team based their conclusions on an intense review of 895 news accounts which included full reports, briefs and closely related stories. The study was released Tuesday.
“When political scientists analyze the 2016 presidential primaries, it will be impossible to ignore the huge advantage in free TV airtime that the networks awarded to the GOP front-runner — and how it contrasts with the reasonable balance they maintained in their coverage of the Democratic race,” Mr. Noyes said.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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