Study: Most Cable Networks’ Coverage of Trump’s Cabinet Nominees are ‘Uniformly Negative’ By Eric Lendrum
A new study by a right-wing media watchdog group has found that the overwhelming majority of the coverage of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees by major cable news channels has been “almost uniformly negative.”
As Fox News reports, the report was released by the Media Research Center (MRC), detailing the coverage of President-elect Trump’s personnel picks by ABC, CBS, and NBC. Within the timespan of December 1st to December 14th, Trump’s nominees – including FBI Director nominee Kash Patel, Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, and Director of National Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard – received approximately 60 minutes and 47 seconds of coverage. Of this coverage, 96% was negative.
“Across all three networks, the coverage of Gabbard, Patel, and the handful of other nominees mentioned was entirely negative. Only Pete Hegseth, who received the lion’s share of the airtime, enjoyed a scant four positive evaluative statements, all of which cited his mother describing him as ‘redeemed’ and ‘a changed man,’” said MRC senior research analyst Bill D’Agostino in the report.
“To reiterate: the only positive commentary any Trump nominee received on the broadcast networks was from his own mother,” D’Agostino continued. “In addition to a whopping 96 percent negative tilt across their flagship evening newscasts, these networks also appear to have paid the most attention to Cabinet nominees who appeared to have the highest chances of sinking.”
Of the three channels, CBS spent the most time talking about President-elect Trump’s nominees, with just under 25 minutes; of those 25 minutes, 14 minutes were spent on Hegseth alone. Of that coverage, 96.7% was negative. NBC had the second-highest amount of coverage, with 21 minutes; 94.7% of their coverage was negative. ABC spent 19 minutes on the Cabinet nominees, with 90% of that coverage being negative.
Patel, Gabbard, and Hegseth, along with Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr., are widely considered the most controversial of President-elect Trump’s choices. Gabbard and Kennedy are both prominent former Democrats who have since joined the Republican Party, thus earning the ire of their former party.
Hegseth, a Fox News host with no political experience, has suddenly faced accusations of sexual misconduct since his nomination was announced, a tactic commonly used by Democrats under the guise of the “MeToo” movement to try to take down Republicans with no credible evidence.
Patel, a former aide to Congressman Devin Nunes and former chief of staff for the acting Secretary of Defense, has pledged to target corruption in the FBI, which has been turned into a political weapon against conservatives in recent years.
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