Network News Can't Quit Trump
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You knew that the cable stations were all Trump, all the time, but so it appears are the broadcasts newscasts as well.
Although Trump didn't announce his candidacy until mid-June of last year, he still managed to be covered as the second biggest news story for all of 2015 on the network evening newscasts.
Between ABC's World News Tonight, the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News, Trump's campaign captured 327 minutes of airtime, according to television news analyst Andrew Tyndall.
NBC gave Trump 122 minutes on the newscast, ABC 121 and CBS 84. That figure doesn't include the network newscasts' coverage of the Republican debates, which garnered an additional 123 minutes of airtime.
Context: ABC's evening news broadcast produced almost as much Trump coverage last year as it did for the Ebola panic in 2014.
How does Trump's 327 minutes compare to other candidates this year and to coverage for previous campaign cycles? Trump's figure is off the charts. Over the last decade, the networks' evening newscasts have never showered a presidential campaign with the kind of attention they gave Trump one year before the White House vote even takes place.
More context: Trump received 327 minutes of evening network airtime one year before the general election campaign. In 2012, during the general election campaign, President Obama's re-election run garnered just 157 minutes of airtime.
Trump continues to spend little money on advertising, knowing that he has the TV networks and cable stations giving him all the free airtime that he wants.
H/T Alternet
