Tufts University student arrest generates 10x more coverage from legacy news than MS-13 gang leader: study
FIRST ON FOX – Legacy media outlets offered 10 times more coverage of a Turkish student who was arrested for allegedly supporting terrorism than the capture of an alleged MS-13 gang leader, according to a Media Research Center (MRC) study.
The FBI announced on Thursday that U.S. authorities captured the MS-13 top leader for the U.S. East Coast, 24-year-old Salvadoran national Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos. The news of the MS-13 boss being arrested came one day after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk for allegedly supporting the Hamas terror group.
The conservative MRC tracked coverage of the arrests from March 26-27 and found that ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC spent significantly more time on the Turkish student. The study found that Ozturk’s arrest resulted in 119 minutes and 18 seconds of combined airtime, while the gang leader’s capture only resulted in 11 minutes and 42 seconds of coverage.
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"In fact, ABC, CBS, NBC didn’t devote a single second to the violent terrorist gang leader’s arrest," MRC director of media analysis Geoffrey Dickens wrote.
MSNBC spent nearly 59 minutes on Ozturk and only three minutes and 43 seconds on Villatoro Santos, according to the study, while CNN spent 50 minutes and nine seconds on the Turkish student and only eight minutes on the gang leader’s capture.
"So why the discrepancy? Whereas the arrest of MS-13 leader was a great PR win for Team Trump, the footage of Ozturk being arrested on the street prompted leftist anchors, reporters and pundits to decry what they called the ‘authoritarian’ actions of the Trump administration," Dickens wrote.
Ozturk's detainment has received extensive media coverage and accusations that the Trump administration is engaging in intimidation tactics against anti-Israel voices.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Fox News last week that Ozturk was "granted the privilege to be in this country on a visa."
"DHS and ICE investigations found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans," the spokesperson said. "A visa is a privilege not a right. Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is commonsense security."
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Ozturk’s arrest yielded six minutes and six seconds on NBC, two minutes and 39 seconds on CBS and 1 minute and 39 seconds on ABC, while the broadcast networks completely ignored Villatoro on evening and morning newscasts, according to the MRC.
Much of the coverage of Ozturk’s arrest described footage of the incident as "chilling" or focused on rallies to support the alleged terror sympathizer, according to the study.
Meanwhile, Trump's administration has deported several top members of MS-13 to El Salvador for incarceration, but anyone who relies on network newscasts would be in the dark about Villatoro.
"ABC, CBS, NBC aired zero seconds on the MS-13 leader being brought in," Dickens wrote.
ABC, CBS and NBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham doesn’t believe the discrepancy was an accident.
"A disparity like this demonstrates that the media prefer one narrative over the other. Trump having a success in arresting a gang leader is too positive to underline. They prefer the narrative that Trump is some kind of dictator arresting foreigners for speaking too freely about the horror of Israel. They don’t even have the shame to notice that Hamas isn’t exactly a free-speech paragon," Graham told Fox News Digital.
Top Democrats have called for the release of Ozturk, writing a letter to Trump administration officials demanding answers surrounding the "deeply troubling" incident.
Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman, Audrey Conklin and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.