Coverage of President Donald Trump and his administration has been 91 percent negative during nightly news broadcasts over the summer, a new study found.
The Media Research Center examined mentions of Trump and his top officials from June 1 through Aug. 31 on ABC's World News Tonight, the CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News and found that just 9 percent of the coverage was positive.
The MRC tallied 4,418 minutes of coverage of the Trump administration since Trump took office on Jan. 20, which equaled almost 74 hours — 39 percent of all evening news coverage. The organization notes that the three aforementioned news networks spent a combined 59 hours covering former President Barack Obama during 2015 and 2016, which was 10 percent of all coverage.
MRC calculated earlier this year that Trump coverage on the three major networks was 89 percent negative in the first three months of his presidency.
Over the summer, 415 minutes of broadcast time was spent covering the investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia — and 94 percent of that was negative. Coverage of repealing and replacing Obamacare and Trump's response to the deadly Charlottesville riots last month was each 97 percent negative.
Trump and members of his administration have repeatedly bashed the media for its negative spin on nearly everything the White House says and does.
During an interview that aired over the weekend, former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon said the mainstream media is trying to destroy Trump and his presidency.