TIM GRAHAM: Three-to-one negative coverage tells the story of network bias
Watching the broadcast news networks report on campaigns makes you think they’re not creating news as much as they’re trying to make the political weather. On every day, in every way, they labor to place the blackest clouds over the heads of President Donald Trump and the Republicans. Good news is not news.
There is no balance of good and bad. Any hint of neutrality is despised as "normalizing" Trump. Nonpartisanship somehow becomes partisanship. So, resistance against Trump is the norm. A Media Research Center study of the 2024 campaign from July 21 through Oct. 25 found ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts punished Trump with 85% negative coverage. Meanwhile, the Democrat nominee, Kamala Harris, received 78% positive coverage. One choice sounded like doom, and the other was painted as hope and joy and "vibes."
With that kind of stark difference in tone, does that sound like news, or campaign advertising?
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Leading the themes two years ago was the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, including Trump’s insistence that the 2020 election was rigged – 47 minutes of coverage. Another 30 minutes was spent amplifying claims that Trump is a "danger to democracy" and/or a "fascist."
It's happening again in 2026. The Media Research Center just found ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts from Sept. 28 to Oct. 26 gave Trump and the Republicans almost 57 minutes of negative coverage on the evening news, while the Democrats received almost 19 minutes of negative coverage – a three-to-one ratio. That math could be a little misleading, since the bad scandal news for Democrats, like the immigration agents raiding the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., came wrapped in framing against the Trump administration for doing this in the closing weeks of an election. (These results came before the new eruption over "Decoy Dan" Sullivan in Alaska.)
It was the same pattern on the formerly taxpayer-funded "PBS News Hour." From Sept. 1 to Sept. 30, the GOP received 94% negative spin, to 6% positive. The Democrats received far more balanced coverage – 53% negative, 47% positive.
No one would say the network news should avoid negative news. Consumers inherently don’t trust happy news any more than they trust gushy positive campaign commercials. Stubbornly high gas prices and a lack of a decisive victory in the Iran war aren’t positive stories. But the overwhelming tone of news coverage should force viewers to understand these broadcast network stars aren’t neutral referees, calling balls and strikes. They’re throwing beanballs at the Republicans.
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Inside the broadcast network news bubble, democracy is mentally associated with the Democrats, autocracy with the Grand Old Party. If the Republicans show party unity, that’s a failing. They are weakening democracy by not weakening Trump. When the Democrats show party unity, that’s not controversial at all.
In fact, the elitist media help enforce party unity. Republicans dissenting from Trump quickly draw positive media attention. "Lifelong Republicans" who endorse Democrats get promoted as the zeitgeist. Democrat dissenters would be ignored and gain no advantage.
The growing radicalism of the Democrat party and its Democratic Socialists of America faction, and what they plan to do if they gain a majority in one or both houses of Congress, have not been serious topics. If the voters are casting ballots for Democrats because of the economy, do the Democrats have an actual solution? The networks weren’t focused on what happens next.
Anyone perusing social media can see the Democrats salivating at more impeachments of Trump, and maybe an impeachment for Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., not to mention some very aggressive hearings into how the Trump family is personally prospering in Trump’s second term.
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During President Joe Biden’s presidency, the broadcast networks obsessed over the House’s Jan. 6 hearings, including incessant live coverage, even in prime time hours. In the last two years, House oversight hearings into subjects like Biden’s use of the autopen and his declining mental fitness, were largely ignored. Republican hearings aren’t news. Democrat hearings will surely be big news – again.
The networks have focused most of their attention on Trump’s rallies, often noting that when he campaigns in red states, it’s a sign that Republicans are anxious about losing in states they should be winning. If former President Barack Obama campaigns in a blue state, like appearing with radical Democrat Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, that’s not painted as desperation.
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PBS reporter Liz Landers oozed on Oct. 26: "Former President Barack Obama brought his own firepower to the trail, rallying Democratic voters in two Midwestern battlegrounds on Saturday, telling crowds in Michigan and Ohio that Trump was responsible for rising costs because of the war with Iran."
Trump canceling rallies in the closing days of the race is drawing negative coverage. When he rallies, it’s negative. When he moves to "tele-rallies" from Mar-a-Lago for a larger audience, that’s also negative. ABC’s Jonathan Karl warned, "Trump lashed out at a reporter who asked if he was sick of traveling." Most Republicans are sick of the network news manufacturing nightmares for their party on a daily basis.