TIM GRAHAM: Three-to-one negative coverage tells the story of network bias

Watching the broadcast news networks report on campaigns makes you think theyre not creating news as much as theyre trying to make the political weather. On every day, in every way, they labor to place the blackest clouds over the heads of President Donald Trump and the Republicans. Good news is not news.

There is no balance of good and bad. Any hint of neutrality is despised as "normalizing" Trump. Nonpartisanship somehow becomes partisanship. So, resistance against Trump is the norm. A Media Research Center study of the 2024 campaign from July 21 through Oct. 25 found ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts punished Trump with 85% negative coverage. Meanwhile, the Democrat nominee, Kamala Harris, received 78% positive coverage. One choice sounded like doom, and the other was painted as hope and joy and "vibes."

With that kind of stark difference in tone, does that sound like news, or campaign advertising?

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Leading the themes two years ago was the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, including Trumps insistence that the 2020 election was rigged – 47 minutes of coverage. Another 30 minutes was spent amplifying claims that Trump is a "danger to democracy" and/or a "fascist."

It's happening again in 2026. The Media Research Center just found ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts from Sept. 28 to Oct. 26 gave Trump and the Republicans almost 57 minutes of negative coverage on the evening news, while the Democrats received almost 19 minutes of negative coverage – a three-to-one ratio. That math could be a little misleading, since the bad scandal news for Democrats, like the immigration agents raiding the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., came wrapped in framing against the Trump administration for doing this in the closing weeks of an election. (These results came before the new eruption over "Decoy Dan" Sullivan in Alaska.)

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It was the same pattern on the formerly taxpayer-funded "PBS News Hour." From Sept. 1 to Sept. 30, the GOP received 94% negative spin, to 6% positive. The Democrats received far more balanced coverage – 53% negative, 47% positive.

No one would say the network news should avoid negative news. Consumers inherently dont trust happy news any more than they trust gushy positive campaign commercials. Stubbornly high gas prices and a lack of a decisive victory in the Iran war arent positive stories. But the overwhelming tone of news coverage should force viewers to understand these broadcast network stars arent neutral referees, calling balls and strikes. Theyre throwing beanballs at the Republicans.

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Inside the broadcast network news bubble, democracy is mentally associated with the Democrats, autocracy with the Grand Old Party. If the Republicans show party unity, thats a failing. They are weakening democracy by not weakening Trump. When the Democrats show party unity, thats not co