FIRST ON FOX -- Americans who rely on evening newscasts from ABC, CBS or NBC for information are likely unaware that elected officials going after former President Trump are Democrats, according to a new study from the Media Research Center.
"The network coverage of the Trump prosecutions routinely and fraudulently implies that they are nonpartisan public officials. It’s Trump versus the New York Attorney General, or the Manhattan District Attorney. They’re not just Democrats, they’re elected Democrats, building a career on taking down Trump. Leaving that out of the story is irresponsible," NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham told Fox News Digital.
Rich Noyes, contributing editor for MRC NewsBusters, led a team of analysts who reviewed "NBC Nightly News," "CBS Evening News" and ABC’s "World News Tonight" from January 1, 2023 through April 10, 2024. They found networks failed to inform viewers during at least 90% of coverage that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis, and New York Attorney General Letitia James are Democrats.
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"It’s as if the networks prefer to disingenuously portray the indictments and civil lawsuits as the work of nonpartisan career prosecutors, rather than as partisan attempts to use the court system to hobble the electoral prospects of the country’s top Republican," Noyes said.
Bragg, last April, charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records related to alleged hush-money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign. Noyes wrote that "Bragg isn’t just a mainstream Democrat" and that he is "clearly on the far-left wing of the party," especially considering his ties to liberal billionaire George Soros.
"ABC’s ‘World News Tonight’ has aired 56 stories discussing Bragg’s ‘hush money’ case against Trump, yet sharp-eared viewers only once heard that Bragg was a Democrat — on February 26, 2024, when correspondent Aaron Katersky relayed how ‘a spokesman for Trump... called Bragg another deranged Democrat prosecutor,’" Noyes wrote.
"That’s still better than the ‘CBS Evening News,’ which aired 48 stories discussing Bragg’s case, none of which revealed that the District Attorney is a Democrat," he continued. "’NBC Nightly News’ was the most informative on this score, informing viewers that Bragg is a Democrat in 16 out of 59 stories, or about 27% of the time — still barely one-fourth of stories."
Between ABC, CBS and NBC, Bragg was labeled a Democrat 17 times out of 163 stories, according to the study.
"Bragg’s partisanship was omitted from nearly 90% of evening news stories about his election-season indictments of the former President," Noyes wrote.
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There has been even less rhetoric about AG James’ partisanship, according to the study.
"Through April 10, ABC’s ‘World News Tonight’ has aired 44 stories mentioning James’s suit against Trump and his businesses, yet only one — back on November 6 — identified the state Attorney General as a ‘Democrat,’ in a fleeting on-screen graphic that was shown for less than two seconds," Noyes wrote.
"Similarly, the CBS Evening News produced 35 stories that discussed James’s civil case, but only once did viewers learn about James’s partisanship," he continued. "Compared to its competitors, ‘NBC Nightly News’ was again the most informative. The newscast discussed the civil case in 26 stories, seven of which mentioned James’s party affiliation."
Between ABC, CBS and NBC, James was labeled a Democrat only nine times out of 105 stories, according to the study.
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It was much of the same when evening newscasts covered scandal-plagued DA Willis, who wasn’t labeled a Democrat once during 99 segments between ABC’s "World News Tonight" and "CBS Evening News," according to the study. NBC managed to identify Willis as a Democrat in eight out of 50 segments.
"Add it all up, and out of 149 evening news stories about the Georgia election case against Trump, a scant 5% revealed that Willis was a Democrat, vs. 95% that kept viewers in the dark," Noyes said.
"Clearly, the editorial choices made by these broadcast networks shows they are framing these cases as the actions of nonpartisan law enforcement officials — all of whom just happen to be Democrats," he continued. "But if it were a leading Democrat who had been placed under the legal microscope by a trio of elected Republicans, does anyone think that the media would be so reluctant to even mention the partisanship of the prosecutors? Of course not."
ABC, NBC and CBS didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Graham feels things were much different back in the Clinton era.
"Anchormen like Dan Rather couldn’t mention Kenneth Starr investigating the Clintons without saying ‘Republican independent counsel,’ so that the first word could cancel the second," he said.
"The most obvious field for investigating media bias is scandals and scandal investigations. Under Trump, his scandals have always been much more ‘newsworthy’ than his policies," Graham continued. "Under Clinton, they would hype up his policies and complain that scandals were a waste of public resources and media air time."
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
