Report: Media Using Subjective Language On Trump's Emotional State

TV news reporters have saturated the airwaves with subjective language about the President’s emotional state, most of it casting him as an out-of-control hothead.

Media Research Center analysts looked at every broadcast evening news story about the President from January 1 through September 10, and tallied the various words reporters have used this year to describe Trump’s state of mind, grouping them by category.

Broadcast journalists were most likely to describe the President as angry, often using highly-charged words to paint him as unhinged or out-of-control. Viewers heard Trump variously described as “furious” (17 times), “fuming” (14), “outraged” (8), “venting” (5), “infuriated” (5), “livid” (3), “enraged” (3), “seething” (2), or just plain-old “angry” (23).

When Trump communicated, he was said to be “lashing out” (53), on a “tirade” (8), “blasting” (5), or “erupting” (3). The President was also “on the warpath,” “volcanic,” “unglued,” “spoiling for a fight” and even “went ballistic,” according to reporters at various times this year.


Add it all up, along with a few miscellaneous terms, and Trump has been described as angry 185 times this year, or roughly 20 times per month. ABC’s World News Tonight has accounted for more than half of this language (106) — twice as much as heard on NBC’s Nightly News (53) and four times the descriptions found on the CBS Evening News (26).