FIRST ON FOX -- As the NY v. Trump court case wraps up, the former president and presumptive GOP nominee’s Democratic opponents have already received a "massive media bonus" from ABC, NBC and CBS, according to the Media Research Center.
MRC NewsBusters studied morning, evening and Sunday news shows on ABC, CBS and NBC since the start of jury selection on April 14.
Among the key findings was that in the over 640 minutes of total trial coverage across the three networks, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was rarely identified as a partisan Democrat.
"These numbers show not only a liberal media bias, but basic journalistic ineptitude. In any story, you want to answer the basics – who, what, where, when, why, and how – so to leave out Alvin Bragg’s partisan affiliation or that he campaigned in part on bringing down Trump is shoddy at best and deceptive at its worst," NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck told Fox News Digital.
Houck said the data proves the networks simply want to hurt Trump "fundamental facts be damned," and "no matter how overwhelmingly voluminous their coverage gets."
Houck, who conducted the study alongside NewsBusters researcher Rich Noyes, found that ABC delivered the most coverage with 257 minutes, NBC came in second with 222 minutes and CBS managed 161 minutes over six weeks since the trial began.
Out of 110 evening news stories, only three indicated that Bragg is a partisan Democrat, the study found. "CBS Evening News" never bothered to inform viewers, while ABC’s "World News Tonight" only mentioned it once. Over on "NBC Nightly News," Bragg was referred to as a Democrat twice over six weeks – with both coming back in April and were mentioned as the "partisan prosecution" being a pro-Trump talking point, according to the study.
"Unlike the jury in the courtroom, millions of citizens have seen the evidence only as depicted by the liberal news networks — an often-skewed version that seemed more designed to embarrass and antagonize the Republican presidential candidate than to scrutinize the merits of the case against him," Houck and Noyes wrote when summarizing the study.
"There were three stories – one on NBC, two on ABC – that directly referenced lead prosecutor Matthew Colangelo, but none explained he had left a high-ranking job at Joe Biden’s Justice Department to join Bragg’s prosecution of Trump," Houck and Noyes continued. "Similarly, there were six stories which identified prosecutor Joshua Steinglass and two others that named Susan Hoffinger, but no explanation that the duo were veteran Trump antagonists, having helped Bragg previously prosecute the former President’s businesses in another case."
Hoffinger donated $500 to Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020: a donation of $250 in February 2020 and another donation of $250 in March 2020. She donated more than $900 to ActBlue during the 2020 cycle. ActBlue is an online fundraising platform for Democrat candidates, progressive organizations and nonprofits.
BRAGG PROSECUTOR LEADING STORMY DANIELS QUESTIONING IN TRUMP TRIAL DONATED TO BIDEN, DEMOCRATS
The NewsBusters watchdog also objected to language they observed over the last six weeks on ABC, CBS and NBC.
"From April 14 through May 29, viewers heard the word ‘criminal’ used 111 times in relation to the presumptive GOP nominee, slightly more than once per story; the term ‘felony’ was heard an additional 18 times," they wrote, noting that "NBC Nightly News" did use the more accurate phrase ‘low-level felony’ nine times to describe the charges against Trump, a distinction that ABC and CBS never made.
NBC was also the only one to "provide any airtime to key points that would have given viewers important context, including how the previous Democratic District Attorney in Manhattan Cy Vance, as well as federal prosecutors, had looked at the same material and declined to press charges," as ABC and CBS failed to do so.
The networks also downplayed the credibility issues of former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen, who was the key witness of the prosecution.
"From April 14 through May 29, the networks spent 75 minutes on Cohen, out of 244 total minutes, or roughly 30% of the evening news coverage," Houck and Noyes wrote.
"Yet despite Cohen’s central role in both the case and the coverage, network reporters barely mentioned his previous conviction for perjury," they added. "This inconvenient fact received just 94 seconds on the ‘CBS Evening News,’ 80 seconds on the ‘NBC Nightly News,’ and a pathetic 10 seconds on ABC’s ‘World News Tonight."
The full report, which can be viewed on NewsBusters, also notes that ABC, CBS and NBC failed to inform viewers of the various conflicts raised against Judge Juan Merchan during their evening newscasts, harped on details about the alleged sexual encounter between Trump and Stormy Daniels, and regularly "regurgitated old and negative claims against Trump," among other things.
"This wave of tawdry allegations, plus a prosecution presented as nonpartisan, added up to heavily negative coverage of the former President. Between April 14 and May 29, our analysts tallied 230 negative statements about Trump related to the trial, vs. just seven positive statements," Houck and Noyes wrote. "This translates to 97% negative coverage."
ABC, CBS and NBC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
