Trump "Pussy" Tapes Triple His Newscast Airtime Over Hillary (Not That She's Complaining)

Thanks to the 'Access Hollywood' leak, the Big Three networks' news bosses went all in with their coverage, as revealed by a minute-by-minute count.

Pundits have blamed the media for giving Donald Trump too much airtime since he launched his presidential campaign in June 2015. But Oct. 7 to 14 might have been this season's most lopsided when comparing Trump with Hillary Clinton — and Clinton isn't complaining.

Thanks to the Access Hollywood tape in which Trump boasts about groping women, the network news bosses — ABC's James Goldston, NBC's Andrew Lack and CBS' David Rhodes — dedicated a combined 70 minutes of nightly news coverage to Trump during the six weeknights after the leak, according to news analyst Andrew Tyndall, most of it on the groping scandal. Just 20 minutes focused on Clinton (including her email issues). That's three and a half times as much Trump as Hillary, compared with the Sept. 6 to Oct. 6 time frame, when Trump had 122 minutes versus Clinton's 81 — barely 50 percent more. "The rise of Donald Trump depended on ample, excessive even, free coverage because of his celebrity and appeal as a headlines grabber," notes Tyndall. "His fall in the polls similarly has been magnified by asymmetrical coverage of his celebrity braggadocio."

This story first appeared in the Nov. 4 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.