Vice President Kamala Harris may already have an advantage in Tuesday's presidential debate.
New Research A survey conducted by the Media Research Center found that ABC's primetime flagship news program, “World News Tonight,” has not criticized Harris since she announced her candidacy in July.
“That equates to a gravity-defying 100% positive spin score for the vice president.”
Specifically, MRC analysts looked at all of the race coverage that aired on “World News Tonight” between July 21, the day Harris entered the race, and September 6. They found that every single statement about Harris and her campaign by ABC anchors, reporters, voters, and other nonpartisan sources was “distinctly positive.” All of them. Every single one.
“This equates to a gravity-defying 100% positive spin score for the Vice President,” MRC reported.
Meanwhile, the station has been highly critical of Donald Trump.
ABC anchor David Muir (Heidi Gutman/ABC via Getty Images)
The study found that during the same period, ABC's “World News Tonight” aired just five “definitely positive” comments about Trump, compared with 66 negative ones.
In other words, 100% of the comments about Harris were positive, but a staggering 93% of the comments about Trump were negative.
More details from the MRC:
Our measure of good and bad coverage does not include partisan commentary or “horse-race” assessments of candidates’ poll standings or prospects, so while viewers of ABC’s World News Tonight certainly heard negative comments about Harris over the past six and a half weeks, they all came from Trump, his campaign team or other Republicans, and none of them came from reporters or nonpartisan sources.
At the same time, while our spin scores similarly exclude all Democratic soundbites about the Republican candidate, ABC reporters and anchors gave their coverage of the former president a very negative spin, either by jumping in to criticize Trump himself or by airing negative commentary from nonpartisan sources.
But what about NBC and CBS? Analysts found that while both networks' coverage of Trump was overwhelmingly negative (77% for CBS, 86% for NBC), they were also more likely to criticize Harris.
For example, according to MRC, ABC does not describe Harris as a “liberal” (though Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) still considers her ideologically progressive), yet NBC's “Nightly News” and CBS' “Evening News” both correctly describe Harris as liberal and progressive. Additionally, each network's shows air interviews with voters critical of Harris, something that ABC's primetime news does not do.
Moreover, the analysis found that CBS and NBC are willing to air controversies involving Harris, but ABC is not, although of course ABC has criticized Trump and his controversies.
This analysis is important and thought-provoking because not only is ABC News hosting the Trump-Harris debate, but “World News Tonight” host David Muir is one of the debate's moderators.
The debate is scheduled to begin at 9pm ET at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
Like the debate between President Trump and President Joe Biden in June, this one will have no spectators, and the candidates will be barred from taking notes beforehand (pens and notepads will be allowed during the debate), nor will they be allowed to consult with advisers during commercial breaks.
The biggest sticking point regarding the debate rules was Ms Harris' desire to have her microphone unmuted – in previous debates, each candidate's microphone was muted when it was not their turn to speak.
Harris' campaign Harris is A muted microphone puts her at a “fundamental disadvantage.” It's believed Harris' request for an unmuted microphone was due to her wanting to recreate a moment from her 2020 vice presidential debate with Mike Pence. When she reprimanded him for interrupting her.
President Trump has promised to debate Harris three times, but no agreement has been reached as of yet about holding additional debates.
Do you like Blaze News? Bypass censorship and subscribe to our newsletter to get stories like this delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up here!
