Trashing Trump: Broadcast coverage of the president now 91% negative, say analysts

The trash talk, criticism and negative narratives continue.

Much of the news media continues to offer coverage which is both hostile and biased against President Trump and his administration. Case in point: a wide-reaching new study from the Media Research Center finds that 91 percent of the recent coverage which aired on ABC, CBS and NBC has been negative.

“Since January 20, Media Research Center analysts have reviewed every mention of President Trump and top administration officials on ABC’s World News Tonight, the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News, including weekends,” write research director Rich Noyes and Mike Ciandella, a senior analyst for the conservative press watchdog. “As of August 31, coverage of the administration has totaled nearly 74 hours (4,418 minutes) of airtime, or about 39 percent of all evening news coverage.

“Analyzing the networks’ spin makes it clear that the goal of all of this heavy coverage is not to promote the President, but to punish him,” the analysts said. “In June, July and August, broadcast evening news coverage of Trump was 91 percent negative — worse than the astounding 89 percent negative spin we calculated during the first three months of the administration, usually a traditional honeymoon period for new presidents.”

They based their judgment on the actual tone and content of evaluative statements from those who appeared on camera, including “experts” billed by the three networks as nonpartisan, along with voters, reporters and other correspondents.

“The networks’ aggressive anti-Trump spin has been constant throughout 2017, as it was during the presidential campaign last year. The closest the evening newscasts came to achieving balanced coverage was in April, when a few reporters and analysts praised the President’s use of cruise missiles to punish the Syrian regime for a chemical weapons attack. Yet network coverage that month was still skewed against Trump by a greater than four-to-one ratio,” the two analysts said, noting that all three of the networks treated Mr. Trump’s election as if is was a “national crisis.”

Four topics “consumed” ABC, CBS and NBC — with the ongoing Russia investigation leading the way, followed by he failed attempt to repeal Obamacare, Mr. Trump’s stance towards the North Korean threat, and his response to the violence in Charlottesville. Coverage of those topics was up to 97 percent negative, the study found.

“The networks’ aggression in covering Trump contrasts with their docile, often adoring coverage of President Obama,” the analysts said. “The key difference is that Obama’s policies matched the liberal media’s preferences, while Trump’s agenda clearly clashes with the establishment media’s world view.”