Media Covers Impeachment 77 Times More Than Positive Economic News

New analysis from the Media Research Center (MRC) found that the media covered impeachment 77 times more than recent positive economic news.

“For each minute the evening broadcasts spent talking about the President’s successful economic programs, viewers heard 77 minutes about the Democrats’ impeachment push, a massive disparity,” MRC found. 

MRC also analyzed the type of coverage President Trump received when the media was covering impeachment and found that the coverage was 93% negative during the four months of the investigation, and 95% negative in January 2020. 

The networks that MRC analyzed include ABC, CBS and NBC evening news.

Between September 24 and January 31, these three networks gave 1,082 minutes of coverage to impeachment and the Ukrainian probe launched by Democrats in the House of Representatives. This compared with merely 14 minutes of coverage for the positive economic news of the past few months. 

On the economy, the media discussed the signing of a Phase One trade deal with China, the passage of the newly minted North American trade deal known as the United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA), and positive numbers on job creation and economic growth, according to the MRC.

The coverage of the economy was 82% positive for President Trump’s administration. However, since the economy was only covered for 14 minutes it is dwarfed by the overwhelmingly negative coverage focused on impeachment. 

Other topics that were covered more substantially during the four month time frame include 197 minutes for the airstrike President Trump launched killing Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, 126 minutes for the withdrawal of troops from northern Syria and 42 minutes for the killing of ISIS leader al-Baghdadi. 

The media’s coverage of the airstrike against Soleimani was 96% negatively towards President Trump’s decision. The media’s reporting of the administration’s decision to remove troops from Syria was ubiquitous being 99% negative in reference to the President.

Intriguingly, this analysis didn’t even cover CNN or MSNBC, two media outlets that President Trump repeatedly lambasts as “fake news.”

Studies like this from the MRC reveal what most Americans implicitly acknowledge, that the media is now more overtly partisan and overwhelmingly liberal than ever before. This is not by accident. 

In an op-ed written in 2016, New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen called upon journalists to plot, coordinate and intentionally cover then-candidate Donald Trump in a negative light. He argued that since Trump was an unconventional candidate, journalists must mirror his unconventionality.

Rosen wrote, “Trump isn’t behaving like a normal candidate; he’s acting like an unbound one. In response, journalists have to become less predictable themselves. They have to come up with novel responses. They have to do things they have never done. They may even have to shock us. They may need to collaborate across news brands in ways they have never known. They may have to call Trump out with a forcefulness unseen before. They may have to risk the breakdown of decorum in interviews and endure excruciating awkwardness. Hardest of all, they will have to explain to the public that Trump is a special case, and the normal rules do not apply.”

Journalists have followed Professor Rosen’s advice. Many journalists have shed the nonpartisan charade and revealed their deeply held liberal ties. Media personalities have gotten off the sidelines, put on jerseys and joined Team Blue.

Thanks to the good work of the MRC, the American people will be better equipped to see through the media’s farce.

You can follow this author on Twitter @MettlerZachary