President Donald J. Trump unloaded today on the mainstream media for contributing to the dilapidated state of trust in America’s institutions and his administration, saying that 90% of the coverage was negative, which has put the lives of many at risk.
When the media – driven insane by their Trump Derangement Syndrome – reveals internal deliberations of our government, it truly puts the lives of many, not just journalists, at risk! Very unpatriotic! Freedom of the press also comes with a responsibility to report the news…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2018
…accurately. 90% of media coverage of my Administration is negative, despite the tremendously positive results we are achieving, it’s no surprise that confidence in the media is at an all time low! I will not allow our great country to be sold out by anti-Trump haters in the…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2018
…dying newspaper industry. No matter how much they try to distract and cover it up, our country is making great progress under my leadership and I will never stop fighting for the American people! As an example, the failing New York Times…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2018
…and the Amazon Washington Post do nothing but write bad stories even on very positive achievements – and they will never change!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2018
The 90% figure is corroborated by two studies, one taken in 2017 and one taken in 2018, conducted by the Media Research Center which “studied all broadcast evening news coverage of the President from January 1 through April 30, and found 90 percent of the evaluative comments about Trump were negative — precisely the same hostile tone we documented in 2017.”
As noted MRC’s Richard Noyes, President Trump’s approval ratings actually increased during 2018. In order to conduct the study, MRC “examined all 1,065 network evening news stories about President Trump and top members of his administration during the first four months of this year. The coverage totaled a whopping 1,774 minutes, or roughly one-third of all evening news airtime.”
The Washington Post recently noted that number may be inflated, citing two polls that showed only 62% of media coverage of President Trump is negative. Still far higher than his predecessors. But, it is unclear whether that polling included news coverage of any member of the administration as well.
President Trump’s torrent of tweets come after announcing this morning that he met with A.G. Sulzberger, the publisher of the New York Times, to discuss fake news and rhetoric.
A.G. Sulzbegrer released a statement, saying, “I told the president directly that I thought that his language was not just divisive but increasingly dangerous…I told him that although the phrase ‘fake news’ is untrue and harmful, I am far more concerned about his labeling journalists ‘the enemy of the people,’” Mr. Sulzberger continued. “I warned that this inflammatory language is contributing to a rise in threats against journalists and will lead to violence.”
But, as Rich Noyes notes, “There’s no precedent for a President receiving such a sustained level of negative press over such a long period of time. The fact that the public has become more favorable towards the President in this environment is the latest sign that the media watchdog’s bite isn’t as menacing as their bark suggests.”
