Some things never change.
Consider how the media, especially the “Big Three” TV networks, are covering the midterm elections, whom they are promoting, and whom they are whacking.
A Media Research Center study of 115 election stories from ABC, NBC, and CBS found that 87% treated Republicans negatively, despite the fact that the party controls neither the White House nor any chamber of Congress.
Flash back four years to the Trump-era midterm elections, and the negative coverage was the same, 88%, when the GOP held control of the White House, House, and Senate.
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While the Democrats drew far less scrutiny when out of power, the media this year continued to play on “Team Blue” when in total control of Washington this year, said the report on MRC’s Newsbusters page.
“And another favor for Team Blue: the dominant topics within these campaign stories — GOP candidate controversies, abortion rights and the danger of ‘election deniers’ — perfectly match the topmost items in Democrats’ campaign playbook. Our study shows discussion of these issues within campaign stories far eclipsed that of the economy and inflation, issues that voters deem most important,” said the study shared with Secrets.
Different in the new report from a similar 2018 media review was the lack of coverage of the president and his policies. In 2018, former President Donald Trump was a key feature. This year, TV news has put coverage of President Joe Biden and his policies in the basement.
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“While President Trump was a huge focus of network coverage four years ago (accounting for 48% of all midterm campaign airtime in 2018, more than all of the individual House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates combined), the networks aren’t interested in targeting President Biden this year. Biden accounted for just 34 minutes of midterm coverage,” said the report, authored by Rich Noyes.
He also looked at how individual candidates fared in news coverage and found one candidate with a 100% negative score: Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake. Lake, he wrote, “was on the receiving end of nine evaluative comments, all negative, giving her a 100% negative press score.”
