A recent study suggests that the overall tone of legacy media coverage is so biased that it could be considered election interference.
The Media Research Center evaluated the major network coverage of the 2024 presidential race — specifically Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump — in the weeks since President Joe Biden was effectively forced off the ticket by prominent members of his own party. The results, they said, indicated a dramatic bias in favor of Harris — in terms of both the amount of airtime and tone of coverage.
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“It’s all part of the media’s massive brainwashing enterprise in support of Kamala,” Fox News host Greg Gutfeld said.
“It’s all part of the media’s massive brainwashing enterprise in support of Kamala. According to a new study by @TheMRC” 84% of Harris coverage has been positive – @greggutfeld on @Gutfeldfox. Watch the video for his risque repartee. Study by @RichNoyes: https://t.co/RF8Yi0Eivm pic.twitter.com/leQSx4dslJ
— MRC NewsBusters (@newsbusters) August 21, 2024
The bias was apparent first in the amount of airtime given to Harris over Trump between July 21 — the day Biden announced he was leaving the presidential race — to August 17: Harris received 221 minutes of coverage during evening newscasts on ABC, CBS, and NBC. Trump received 133 minutes of coverage during that same period of time.
It is important to note the context — namely, that even though the Democratic Party was in upheaval as it changed candidates and then Harris selected her running mate, the timeframe studied also began just after the Republican National Convention and Trump’s selection of Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) to be his VP, and just over one week after he had been shot at a Pennsylvania rally.
Still, the coverage of the vice presidential candidates bore out a similar pattern. Over the course of 28 days, Vance saw just over 31 minutes of airtime. Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz, Harris’ VP pick, saw just under 32 minutes of airtime, but he got all that coverage in half the time because the clock did not start for him until August 6.
The tone of the coverage showed an even wider gap between the candidates. Evening news coverage included 57 positive comments about Harris and only 11 negative, which translated to a positive spin score of 84%. Trump, on the other hand, had only 11 positive statements and 86 negative, which gave him a negative spin score of 89%.
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Again, the same trend continued with the vice presidential candidates: Walz received a 62% positive spin score, and Vance received a 92% negative spin score.
In addition to all of that, major media outlets have continued to downplay issues that could negatively impact either Harris or the Democratic Party — while negative stories about Trump or Republicans continue to grow legs.
The real question, MRC concluded, would be whether or not the public would see through the “extraordinarily lopsided coverage.”
