Donald Trump: How the President dominates US network news coverage

Updated

Donald Trump's TV habits — he denies watching up to eight hours a day — are becoming the stuff of legend, but it appears the medium that made him a star needs him just as much.

On many days, some US news networks devote more than 50 per cent of their airtime to talking about the President.

But you might be surprised which network mentions him the least.

We tracked mentions of the name "Trump" in US cable news screen tickers over the last few months.

On 19 days, he is talked about more than 50 per cent of the time on two of the networks. That's more Trump than all of the other news put together.

Of three major US channels, which one spends the most time at or near 50 per cent Trump-talk, and which would prefer to talk about something else?

It's left-leaning MSNBC that is most obsessed with the President and right-leaning Fox News that mentions him the least.

What's driving the agenda? Let's look at how the networks get worked into a Trump frenzy.

On some days, a tsunami of Trump-related stories pushes his chunk of airtime above 50 per cent on two of the networks.

Here, MSNBC picks up stories from the New York Times and CNN.

As a result, the network spends two-thirds of its program time talking about the President.





But on other days, it's one big Trump story that turns the attention on him yet again.

Even on a Sunday, he takes over MSNBC and CNN when he attacks NFL players for kneeling during the national anthem.

Only Fox News manages to find an Obama-related angle to the Trump/NFL controversy.

On October 1, we see a rare trough: all US channels interrupt their Trump-talk to cover the Las Vegas mass shooting.

A few days later, it's situation normal as the President resumes his place as king of cable news.

Many other major stories are unfolding: California bushfires, Puerto Rico's hurricane devastation and Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment allegations.

But the President is again the focus of more than 60 per cent of airtime on CNN and MSNBC.

This tweet was picked up by CNN and MSNBC but ignored by Fox News.

Five days later, it's again a smorgasbord of negative Trump stories…

... except on Fox.

At the end of October, we see Trump mentions fall again, but not for the reason you'd think.

Here we see the name "Mueller" take centre stage…

… but it's still technically a Trump-related story.

… and the Trump mentions head back up once it becomes clear that the men being charged have direct ties to the President.

Fox is the only network to go big with news that the Clinton campaign partly funded the infamous Trump Russia dossier:

In early December, there is a perfect storm of Trump stories — that can only be described as exhausting — that pushes his percentage to its highest level since we started counting.

It's wall-to-wall Trump as the networks cover no less than 18 stories either created by him or related to him. At several points during the day, the only way to avoid him would be to turn off cable news altogether:

So, one year into this Trump-fest, are people tuning out? It doesn't seem so.

Once the also-ran of the big cable news channels, MSNBC is now regularly beating CNN and is a serious rival to Fox for the first time in nearly 20 years.

Its viewership has doubled and its flagship night-time program The Rachel Maddow Show is flying high, challenging Fox News' Sean Hannity.

Trump thrives on media outrage — it's a big part of his strategy. And the networks — particularly MSNBC and CNN, which he regularly brands as "Fake News" — provide it around the clock.

So as long as they continue to tune in, even those who despise him are fuelling one of his most powerful motivations, and we're all being Trumped.

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Sources

TV chyron data provided by The Internet Archive

Credits

Reporter: Cristen Tilley

Designer: Ben Spraggon

Developer: Nathan Hoad

Editor: Matt Liddy

Topics: donald-trump, world-politics, television-broadcasting, united-states

First posted