A year of near-silence from the major media on border crisis
NEWS AND OPINION
The “Big Three” broadcast networks — that would be ABC, CBS and NBC — appear to be in mute mode when it comes to coverage of the U.S. border with Mexico. A painstaking new study reveals all.
“Over the last year, the crisis on the southern border has grown steadily worse, surging to new records month after month. There’s been violence and death at the border. States are overwhelmed. Illegal immigrants have been released in cities all across America,” wrote Scott Whitlock, research director for NewsBusters.org, a conservative press watchdog.
He has figured out just how much time the networks devoted to border issues over the last 12 months. It wasn’t much.
The situation apparently did not warrant much coverage in the past year, he said, despite the fact that there were 2,361,553 illegal border crossings during the period, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.
“From July of 2021 through June of 2022, ABC’s World News Tonight, the CBS Evening News and the NBC Nightly News allowed just 146 minutes of coverage to the border crisis. Over a full year of three network evening newscasts a night, that comes out to devoting less than one percent of the total coverage on the border crisis,” Mr. Whitlock said.
For those who are curious about the math here, he explained to Inside the Beltway that when the length of commercials are not counted, there are 22 minutes during each newscast every day. Multiply that by 3 — for the three networks — and the total minutes of actual news content is 66 minutes a day. Multiply that number by 365 to cover the year, and voila — there are, typically, 240,090 news minutes available, Mr. Whitlock said.
Moving right along, the network newscasts appear to be in protective mode in the meantime.
“The situation at the border has deteriorated to dangerous levels. Yet the networks have little interest in investigating or holding Joe Biden accountable. The President’s polling numbers are falling, despite the best efforts of ABC, CBS and NBC to protect Biden from facing the reality of the situation he’s made much worse,” Mr. Whitlock said.
He also has a reminder.
“The midterm elections are only 15 weeks away. If journalists want to do their jobs — and not be partisans protecting the Democratic Party — they should cover this dangerous situation,” he advised.
Find the complete study at Newsbusters.org.
https://washingtontimes.com/news/2022/jul/19/inside-beltway-year-media-silence/
The “Big Three” broadcast networks — that would be ABC, CBS and NBC — appear to be in mute mode when it comes to coverage of the U.S. border with Mexico. A painstaking new study reveals all.
“Over the last year, the crisis on the southern border has grown steadily worse, surging to new records month after month. There’s been violence and death at the border. States are overwhelmed. Illegal immigrants have been released in cities all across America,” wrote Scott Whitlock, research director for NewsBusters.org, a conservative press watchdog.
He has figured out just how much time the networks devoted to border issues over the last 12 months. It wasn’t much.
The situation apparently did not warrant much coverage in the past year, he said, despite the fact that there were 2,361,553 illegal border crossings during the period, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.
“From July of 2021 through June of 2022, ABC’s World News Tonight, the CBS Evening News and the NBC Nightly News allowed just 146 minutes of coverage to the border crisis. Over a full year of three network evening newscasts a night, that comes out to devoting less than one percent of the total coverage on the border crisis,” Mr. Whitlock said.
For those who are curious about the math here, he explained to Inside the Beltway that when the length of commercials are not counted, there are 22 minutes during each newscast every day. Multiply that by 3 — for the three networks — and the total minutes of actual news content is 66 minutes a day. Multiply that number by 365 to cover the year, and voila — there are, typically, 240,090 news minutes available, Mr. Whitlock said.
Moving right along, the network newscasts appear to be in protective mode in the meantime.
“The situation at the border has deteriorated to dangerous levels. Yet the networks have little interest in investigating or holding Joe Biden accountable. The President’s polling numbers are falling, despite the best efforts of ABC, CBS and NBC to protect Biden from facing the reality of the situation he’s made much worse,” Mr. Whitlock said.
He also has a reminder.
“The midterm elections are only 15 weeks away. If journalists want to do their jobs — and not be partisans protecting the Democratic Party — they should cover this dangerous situation,” he advised.
Find the complete study at Newsbusters.org.
https://washingtontimes.com/news/2022/jul/19/inside-beltway-year-media-silence/
