We’ve all heard President Trump and other members of the White House staff say that major news outlets are biased and not legitimate, but is that true?
According to a new study from Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, the President isn’t far off.
During his first 100 days in office, the coverage of President Trump was 80% negative. The study also points out that the last three presidents, Obama, Bush and Clinton, had a much easier time during the first 100 days. President Obama had only 41%, President Bush had an almost even 57%, and President Clinton’s negative new coverage clocked in at 60%.
The study’s findings also showed that:
- President Trump dominated media coverage in the outlets and programs analyzed, with Trump being the topic of 41 percent of all news stories—three times the amount of coverage received by previous presidents. He was also the featured speaker in nearly two-thirds of his coverage.
- Republican voices accounted for 80 percent of what news makers said about the Trump presidency, compared to only 6 percent for Democrats and 3 percent for those involved in anti-Trump protests.
- European reporters were more likely than American journalists to directly question Trump’s fitness for office.
- Trump has received unsparing coverage for most weeks of his presidency, without a single major topic where Trump’s coverage, on balance, was more positive than negative, setting a new standard for unfavorable press coverage of a president.
- Fox was the only news outlet in the study that came close to giving Trump positive coverage overall, however, there was variation in the tone of Fox’s coverage depending on the topic.
What stands out here is that out of all five of the major news networks, only one was able to be balanced in its coverage.
But where did other networks fall in comparison to the Fox? The study also answered that question.
According to the report, 97% of CNN’s coverage was negative, as was NBC. The New York Times and the Washington Post had 87% and 86% respectively, and the Wall Street Journal had only 70% of its coverage dedicated to negative stories about the President.
At the end of the day, this study gives some credibility to the President, and that maybe, some coverage of his presidency was bias.