Author: Hondo

. . . you betcha.

And yes, the study was by that Harvard:  the university in Cambridge, MA. The East Coast liberal academic Mecca.

A group at Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy recently looked at media reporting concerning President Trump during his first 100 days in office. They categorized stories in the mainstream media concerning President Trump in two ways: first by primary subject  (e.g., economy, immigration, health care), and second by the article’s overall tone. The stories’ were “binned” into multiple subject categories; the stories’ tone was assessed as either positive or negative towards the POTUS.

The group conducting the study then did the same for Trump’s last three predecessors. Stories from 10 mainstream media organizations were used – 3 foreign, and 7 US.

What the study found was IMO quite telling. This Heatstreet article has more details – but here’s the study’s “bottom line” at a glance:

Based on how they’ve reported on the first 100 days of the Trump Administration, the US mainstream media appears to be biased as hell against the POTUS.  The US media has consistently used far more negative “spin” regarding his Administration than was the case with any of his 3 immediate predecessors during their first 100 days in office.

It’s been normal over the past 25 years for a new POTUS to get somewhat more negative coverage than positive during his first 100 days.  (The SCoaMF that occupied 1600 Penn Ave, Wash DC, before Trump was an exception to this rule.)  However, the degree of unfavorable “spin” being according President Trump is exceptional – and possibly unprecedented.

Even more revealing are the actual “splits” for the seven US mainstream media outlets studied:

• CNN and NBC – 93% negative coverage, 7% positive
• CBS – 91% negative coverage, 9% positive
• New York Times – 87% negative, 13% positive
• Washington Post – 83% negative, 17% positive
• Wall Street Journal – 70% negative, 30% positive
• Fox – 52% negative, 48% positive

In fact, four of the US mainstream media organizations studied – CNN, NBC, CBS, and the NYT – were each more negatively biased against President Trump than 2 of the 3 foreign mainstream media organizations included in the study.  Since Trump has a clear “America first” public persona, one would expect US media organizations to be more favorable towards him than the European ones.  That’s not the case at all.

Two things stand out when looking at those “splits”. First, based on the study’s results Fox may well be quite accurate in its “Fair and Balanced” claim.  They’re the only mainstream media outlet, US or foreign, of the 10 studied to treat President Trump anywhere near evenhandedly during his first 100 days in office.

And second: if there’s any “vast conspiracy” in the mainstream media, that conspiracy sure as hell isn’t some kind of “vast right-wing conspiracy”. If anything, the media is skewing even more to the “hard left” today than usual.

No, the mainstream media doesn’t control the facts behind events they report.  (Well, unless they engage in outright MSU –AKA “Making Sh!t Up”, or creating false or misleading news – though the mainstream media indeed seems to do exactly that as well on occasion.)  However, they do control what facts they choose to report and omit, along with how those facts are presented – AKA “spun”.  And based the media “spin” found by the Harvard study group, the degree of negative bias shown by most of the mainstream media against the Trump Administration during its first 100 days is shocking.

Indeed, it almost appears as if the news media is actively trying to overturn the recent US Presidential election.  I guess they must only believe in our Constitution and our form of representative democracy when their preferred candidate wins.

Then again, the US mainstream media has been overwhelmingly politically liberal since at least the Eisenhower administration (and almost certainly well before then). Given that fact, the media regarding themselves as our “betters” – as well as them believing that “the media knows what is best for the country; the public should just ‘shut up and color’ and take our word for it” – should be no great surprise.

The Heatstreet article linked above is IMO worth a read. An online copy of at least a short form of the actual study appears to be available here.

Trump certainly has his flaws.  But based on this Harvard study’s results, falsely accusing the media of being “out to get him” doesn’t seem to be one of them.  That accusation certainly appears to have a basis in fact.