We talk a lot about a biased media, but it’s sometimes hard to nail down when it’s happening if you don’t dedicate most of your time sorting out the real facts from the alternative ones in the news. Perhaps some of the falsehoods circulating are just one person’s honest mistake in understanding the issue. Maybe there’s a good reason that we’re not comprehending.
With all that said, there’s one more way to decide what the media is most concerned about; time. It’s the most coveted thing in the TV industry, and what the news media gives it’s time to can be mathematically tracked to see what they think you should be concerned about.
The Media Research Center conducted this study immediately following the terrorist attack in Spain last week, and the results were very telling.
Via Daily Caller:
NBC ‘s evening broadcast spent 60 percent more time on stories about Donald Trump than on a terror attack in Barcelona that killed 14 people and injured over 100.
According to a study by the Media Research Center, “NBC Nightly News” only spent four minutes and 32 seconds on the Barcelona attack while they spent seven minutes and 34 seconds on Trump-related stories.
As of Friday morning, 14 people had been reported dead and 100 people had been reported injured as the result of a van ramming into pedestrians in the famous La Rambla area Thursday night. Police had also reportedly shot down several suspects in a separate attack.
Nonetheless, “NBC Nightly News” had three separate reports on developments related to Trump and Charlottesville, including the removal of confederate monuments.
“CBS Evening News” had slightly more equitable coverage, spending six minutes and 41 seconds on the terror attack and seven minutes on Trump. ABC’s “World News Tonight” was the only “big three” broadcast network to dedicate more time to the Barcelona attack.
The implication here is that these news organizations think it’s more important that you concern yourself with something the President said about a politically charged situation than terrorism and people really dying. The problem with you being worried about people dying, is that you might decide you want to do something about it, and then you might turn into a Republican.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders deals with this problem every day. She addressed the bias in media by talking to the media in a unique way:
Sanders is pointing out that the President has gotten a lot done while in office. Maybe it’s not what every liberal would want to be done, but that’s why they didn’t vote for him. The news media seems to be taking out their revenge on the President for getting elected. That’s not his fault as much as it is the American people’s fault, and we’re who everyone is supposed to be catering to.
If they can keep you worrying yourself silly about President Donald Trump and whether his comments were as overtly anti-Nazi as humanly possible, they can keep your focus away from the issues that you should really be worried about (like terrorism).