According to an MRC NewsBusters report, ABC News’ David Muir, who will be moderating Tuesday night’s presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, has given glowing coverage to Harris in previous weeks while Trump’s coverage has been almost entirely negative.
From NewsBusters:
MRC analysts reviewed all 100 campaign stories that aired on ABC’s World News Tonight from the day Harris entered the race (July 21) through September 6, including weekends. Our analysts found 25 clearly positive statements about Harris from reporters, anchors, voters or other non-partisan sources, with zero negative statements — none. That computes to a gravity-defying 100% positive spin score for the Vice President.
As for Trump, our analysts found just five clearly positive comments, vs. 66 negative statements, for a dismal 7 percent positive (93% negative) spin score.
Our measure of good press/bad press omits partisan comments, as well as “horse race” assessments about the candidates’ poll standings and prospects. So while viewers of ABC’s World News Tonight certainly heard negative comments about Harris during these past six-and-a-half weeks, all of them were from Trump, his campaign team, or other Republicans — never from reporters or nonpartisan sources.
At the same time, while our spin score similarly excludes all Democratic soundbites about the Republican nominee, ABC’s reporters and anchors either jumped in to criticize Trump themselves, or broadcast negative comments from non-partisan sources to impart a heavily negative spin to the former President’s coverage.
During these same weeks, both the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News also delivered highly positive coverage for Harris, and mostly negative coverage for Trump, yet not as extreme as we found with ABC’s World News Tonight. Employing the same methodology, coverage of Harris was 94% positive on CBS, and 71% positive on NBC — historically good press, but not as good as the 100% positive press she received on ABC.
Will we see a fair and balanced presidential debate?
Full report over at NewsBusters:
🚨 BREAKING STUDY: @ABC's coverage of Kamala Harris is 100% positive, while their coverage of Donald Trump is 93% negative.
ABC is the most biased debate host. https://t.co/Vomo6zRdDa
— MRC NewsBusters (@newsbusters) September 9, 2024
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