CNN is addicted to Donald Trump.
The cable news network has dedicated a massive amount of time to covering the hotelier’s presidential campaign, far more than it has dedicated to any of the 16 other Republican candidates. Competing cable news networks, including Fox News and MSNBC, have indeed dedicated a fair amount of time to Trump’s candidacy, but no one outdoes CNN’s coverage.
Since June 16, CNN has done 2,159 stories on Trump, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing data compiled by a San Francisco-based media monitoring group. “That equals one per hour … for 24 hours … for 90 straight days,” the Journal’s Dennis K. Berman noted.
In contrast, Fox News has covered Trump 1,540 times since June, and MSNBC has mentioned Trump in 1,426 stories.
The Media Research Center has a play-by-play of the on-air numbers.
From Aug. 24-Sept. 4, 78 percent of CNN’s prime-time Republican primary coverage went to Donald Trump, the group reported. Five-hundred and eighty minutes of the total 747 minutes given to the 2016 primary went to the GOP frontrunner, while a mere 167 minutes were dedicated to the 16 other Republicans running.
“To put that in perspective, Trump’s 580 minutes of coverage averages out to more than 25 percent of total programming for the 10 days analyzed,” the media group said in a report. “Three Trump campaign events were broadcast in their entirety during these two weeks, not including replays of press conferences that had already occurred. No press conferences for any of the other 16 candidates were broadcast. CNN even bumped its own special commemorating the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina to cover a Trump press conference in Iowa.”
And when CNN did break from Trump coverage to report on his fellow 2016 competitors, it often was for the purpose of asking them to comment on or respond to remarks made by the real estate mogul.
CNN is not ignorant to the fact that it has gone heavy on its Trump reporting.
“Trump is the media’s addiction. When he speaks, he is given something no other candidate gets. That’s wall-to-wall coverage here on cable news. He sucks up all the oxygen,” CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter said in August.
The cable news network’s focus on Trump’s candidacy, even as 16 other Republican candidates try to bring attention to their campaigns, has irked at least a few figures in media.
“You have to try really hard to ignore the actual news to spend nearly 8 out of every 10 minutes talking about Trump,” Commentary’s Noah Rothman remarked on Twitter.
