Media Research Center: Which Candidate Grabbed The Most Airtime?

Last week, Fox News’ Trump acolyte, Sean Hannity, came unglued with RedState over a story that pointed out, correctly, how he’d hosted Donald Trump on 41 separate occasions and had failed to ask anything newsworthy.

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Hannity’s executive producer felt necessary to blog about the amount of time each candidate had appeared on his radio program (and for the record, they came up with 188:39 for Senator Cruz, as opposed to 112:28 for the gilded toad).

That’s all well and good, but the point of the article that sent Hannity into a bawling, screeching frenzy had nothing to do with time. The point of the article had to do with the content of his interviews. Where he asked tough, almost confrontational questions of other candidates, for Trump, it was an open forum for Trump to praise Trump, as Hannity gazed in wonder, occasionally feeding the toad leads to continue exalting himself.

Today, Media Research Center’s NewsBusters site has offered some new numbers of interest, in regards to which candidates are currently receiving free ad space on the major cable news networks.

The analysis was conducted from March 21 to April 15, weekdays only, with the candidates.

Our study found that FNC spent much more time interviewing Trump and his surrogates than either of his GOP competitors. Over the past four weeks, Trump was interviewed for a total of 178 minutes on Fox, vs. 106 minutes on CNN and 43 minutes on MSNBC. (Interviews includes network-sponsored town halls as well as sit-downs with a network host, but not debates or live coverage of rallies or speeches.)

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Compare that to the 120 minutes Senator Ted Cruz was given on Fox, 133 minutes on CNN, and 35 minutes on MSNBC.

For that matter, John Kasich only managed 84 minutes of airtime with his former employers, FNC, 106 minutes on CNN, and 100 on MSNBC.

It’s no wonder people have to be reminded that Kasich is running.

Further study by MRC:

Adding in the airtime for campaign surrogates (family members, campaign staff, or designated surrogates), Trump’s tally grows to 397 minutes on Fox, or nearly 60 percent of the total, compared to 164 minutes (25%) for Cruz and 105 minutes (16%) for Kasich.

On CNN, Trump eclipsed Cruz by a much smaller margin: 331 minutes to 265 minutes, with 134 minutes for Kasich. On MSNBC, Kasich’s campaign actually took the most airtime during the four weeks we examined: 115 minutes, vs. 71 for Trump and 65 for Cruz.

The gap between Trump and his competitors on Fox might have been wider but for the fact that the campaign in early April moved from the Midwest to New York, where all three cable news operations are headquartered. During the first two weeks of our study, Trump and his surrogates claimed 214 minutes of airtime, vs. 62 minutes for Team Cruz and an even punier 24 minutes for Kasich’s crew.

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All of this would be something that could be dismissed as just the way of the media, or maybe even scheduling conflicts, if not for the fact that this is a presidential campaign. This is crucial to the well-being of our nation, that the public be given a full and accurate accounting of the candidates and what they stand for. Our media representatives have been remiss in giving a fair and balanced account of those seeking the sacred trust of our vote.

The real horror is that the man they have all but coronated as King is the most vile, bumbling, and dangerously unqualified candidate this nation has seen since 2008.

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