An analysis by the Media Research Center (MRC) found that 95 percent of mainstream media coverage regarding former President Donald Trump was negative in the aftermath of an assassination attempt on his life.
ABC, CBS, and NBC concentrated on the incident following the thwarted shooting at Trump International Golf Course, with 70 percent of the campaign news airtime focusing on it.
Out of 21 evaluative comments, only one was positive, as anchors linked the attempt to Trump’s rhetoric.
“A look at the first 72 hours of coverage on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts — Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights — finds that while the attempted assassination dominated campaign coverage, these networks’ anti-Trump spin was nearly as bad as it could be: 95 percent negative, vs. just five percent positive,” MRC contributing editor Rich Noyes explained.
For Example, NBC’s Lester Holt blamed the “apparent” assassination attempt on Trump’s “rhetoric” just hours after the attack.
“Today’s apparent assassination attempt comes amid increasingly fierce rhetoric on the campaign trail itself. Mr. Trump [and] his running mate JD Vance continued to make baseless claims about Haitian immigrants in Ohio,” Holt said.
CBS’ Norah O’Donnell said, “Donald Trump is blaming Democrats for inflaming political rhetoric, but the former president’s own words seem to be increasing the threat of political violence in Springfield, Ohio,” she said. “That’s where a false and ugly accusation against Haitians, thousands of whom are legal permanent residents, is impacting everyday life.”
“These networks gave relatively little time to the accusation that these attempted shootings might have been influenced by Democratic rhetoric painting Trump as an existential threat,” MRC said.
The networks spent minimal time—less than two minutes—discussing the possibility that Democratic rhetoric could be to blame for the violence, despite the focus on Trump’s inflammatory language.
This incident comes shortly after another threat against Trump just two months prior.
