A study by the Pew Research Center shows that media coverage of President Trump has been mostly negative, at a rate far surpassing that of previous presidents George Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama.
The President and his supporters have often lamented unfair coverage from sources they dub ‘fake news,’ but this study confirms their suspicions.
During a speech to the Coast Guard Academy, Trump said “No politician in history, and I say this with great surety, has been treated worse or more unfairly.”
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
He appears to be onto something.
Trump proven right; Only 5% of his media coverage has been positive, according to Pew Research. https://t.co/Tk6YrYKVAa
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) October 3, 2017
While the fact that the media has been unfair to Trump should come as no surprise to anyone paying attention, the rate of negative coverage might raise an eyebrow.
The Pew study indicates that 62 percent of the media coverage of this President has been negative, while a scant 5 percent has been positive.
Compare that to two other presidents who were somewhat polarizing in their initial days in the White House – Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Both had more negative coverage than positive, but the numbers were relatively close. According to the research, Clinton had 28 percent negative media stories to 27 percent positive, while Bush had 28 percent negative to 22 percent positive.
That’s nothing like what former President Obama received from a media that practically fawned over him on a daily basis. His coverage – 42 percent positive to 20 percent negative.
“Compared with the first 60 days of the Clinton, Bush and Obama presidencies, news outlets’ evaluations of Trump’s start in office were far more negative and less positive,” a summary of the report states. “About six-in-ten news stories about Trump’s first 60 days (62%) carried an overall negative assessment of his words or actions.”
“That is about three times more negative than for Obama (20%) and roughly twice that of Bush and Clinton (28% each).”
Trump's right, his media coverage is mostly negative pic.twitter.com/MGcJY1u0nW
— Srbija Evropa (@srbija_eu) October 3, 2017
“Coverage was also far less positive, with just 5% of stories conveying an overall positive assessment of the president and the administration,” the study continues. “This is in sharp contrast to Obama’s first days in 2009, when 42% of the stories offered an overall positive assessment.”
Another recent study out of Harvard indicated that during his first 100 days in office, 93 percent of the mainstream media’s coverage toward President Trump was negative.
Next time you see the President complaining about unfair media coverage, understand this – he’s absolutely right.
Cross-posted at The Mental Recession
