Network News Coverage Of Trump Picks 'Uniformly Negative'

Flagship evening newscasts on ABC, CBS and NBC have been "almost uniformly negative" when covering some of President-elect Donald Trump’s most significant Cabinet appointees, according to Fox News Digital citing a new study from the Media Research Center. 

The MRC examined all coverage of Trump’s Cabinet appointees on ABC’s "World News Tonight," "CBS Evening News" and NBC’s "Nightly News" from December 1-14. The study primarily focused on Trump’s Defense Secretary pick Pete Hegseth, FBI Director selection Kash Patel and Director of National Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard, though it also included the other appointments.

Trump’s nominees earned a combined total of 60 minutes and 47 seconds of coverage during the 2-week period. The conservative media watchdog group found that 96% of the coverage 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,’" MRC senior research analyst Bill D’Agostino wrote.

"To reiterate: the only positive commentary any Trump nominee received on the broadcast networks was from his own mother," D’Agostino added. "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."

• CBS spent the most time on Trump’s nominees overall, spending nearly 25 minutes on them with over 14 minutes focusing on Hegseth.
• The second-most transition coverage came from NBC, which was negative 94.7% of the 21 minutes and three seconds spent on Trump’s selections. NBC spent over 11 minutes on Hegseth alone and was the only network to have 100% negative coverage of him, according to the MRC. 
• ABC spent 19 minutes and 25 seconds on Trump’s nominees, 90% of which was negative, the study found. 

The MRC also found that "the majority of the reports about Hegseth centered around the handful of salacious allegations against him," but the networks "abruptly lost interest once his chances of being confirmed started to look more promising."