By Jennifer Harper - The Washington Times - Wednesday, September 26, 2018
After an exhaustive study, analysts have declared that TV news is “rigged” against Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
“During the twelve days since Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein publicly announced the existence of an unspecified allegation against Brett Kavanaugh, the ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening news shows have spent nearly six hours (344 minutes) regurgitating various unproved allegations against the Supreme Court nominee,” wrote Rich Noyes, a senior analyst for Newsbusters.org, a conservative press watchdog.
“But only a tiny percentage of that coverage — a measly eight percent — has been devoted to Kavanaugh’s denials and the lack of corroboration for his accusers’ accounts,” he said.
Analysts combed through coverage from Sept. 13-24 to find that most of it centered on allegations made by Christine Blasey Ford; another 39 minutes went to three other accusers, the study found.
“Amid that sea of coverage, our analysts found the networks devoted a minuscule fraction on the key points that support the Supreme Court nominee’s case,” Mr. Noyes said.
“On September 14, Kavanaugh issued a statement ‘categorically and unequivocally’ denying Ford’s charges,” the analyst wrote. “For most of the coverage that followed, his flat denial was relegated to a few seconds in lengthy stories about the charges — sometimes no more than a parenthetical clause that reporters mechanically inserted in stories that bombarded viewers with the salacious details of each accusation.“On September 24, however, the three evening newscasts ran a combined three minutes showing clips of Kavanaugh’s interview on Fox News, in which he stated his denials on camera for the first time,” Mr. Noyes said. “That night’s coverage boosted the total airtime spent telling viewers about Kavanaugh’s denial to 14 minutes, barely four percent of the overall coverage.”