A new MRC study by Rich Noyes of all the evening-news coverage of the Republican presidential race on ABC, CBS, and NBC in 2023 makes it obvious the networks want Trump to be the nominee. He drew almost all of the coverage — other candidates could barely get noticed. And most of the Trump coverage obsessed over his legal problems, mostly avoiding any national policy issues
Republican voters (and the American people) might have some quaint expectation that network TV anchors and reporters would explain the entire panoply of candidates and issues in the runup to the primaries. There’s nothing resembling an old-fashioned approach of reporting with objectivity and policy substance. To summarize the findings:
■ In 2023, Trump received 1,192 minutes of evening news airtime, or 79% of all GOP candidate coverage. Top challengers Ron DeSantis (166 minutes) and…
