I don't watch TV news, so I missed this
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Tyler O’Neil: Networks bury 2020 candidates under avalanche of impeachment coverage
In the month before the Iowa caucuses, the big three television news networks — ABC, CBS, and NBC — effectively buried news about the Democrats running for president in 2020 by giving nearly three times as much coverage to the impeachment of President Donald Trump.
A Media Research Center study found that the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening newscasts spent 236 minutes on impeachment in January. By contrast, the networks spent 88 minutes on the Democratic race, with 22 minutes of that time actually focused on impeachment! Those 22 minutes involved recounting how former Vice President Joe Biden was targeted for investigation in Ukraine or how the impeachment trial would affect the Democratic senators running for president.
That left 66 minutes of airtime dedicated to the Democratic presidential candidates, with impeachment receiving 3.6 times the amount of coverage.
In the 130 days since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the impeachment inquiry on September 24, the networks' evening shows have spent a combined 1,082 minutes on impeachment, compared to 302 minutes on the Democratic race (112 minutes of which also concerned impeachment). The networks effectively dedicated five times as much coverage to impeachment as to the 2020 Democratic race.
The imbalance seems particularly noteworthy, given that the Senate is almost certain to acquit Trump while the 2020 Democratic primary is extremely competitive and hard to predict.
The networks spent the most time on Sen. Bernie Sanders (S-USSR), for 32 minutes. The Media Research Center faulted the networks for spending only two minutes of that time covering Sanders' extreme socialist policies.[emphasis added]
Biden came second with 27 minutes, but the networks spent 11 of those minutes discussing Biden as a potential target of investigations in Ukraine. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-1/1024th of a Plan) received 10 minutes of airtime, most of it focused on her claim that Sanders told her privately that a woman could not win the 2020 election.
