ABC News Is The Most Biased Debate Host Possible: Media Study

A new study from the Media Research Center revealed that ABC News — set to hold what could be the only presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday — is by far the most biased of the three major networks.

The MRC analyzed coverage of the two major party candidates during the evening newscasts on network television — “World News Tonight” on ABC, “CBS Evening News” on CBS, and “NBC Nightly News” on NBC — and determined that ABC delivered the most dramatically slanted coverage.

According to the study, “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir — who also happens to have been named one of Tuesday evening’s debate moderators — had covered Harris with an incredible 100% positive spin score.

The way the spin score is calculated is simple: all assessments of polls or analyses of where the candidates stand are omitted, as are comments made by campaign sources. Of what’s left — comments made by anchors and reporters, voters, or other supposedly non-partisan sources — the MRC determines a ratio of positive-to-negative statements about each candidate. And since she entered the race on July 21, on “World News Tonight,” Harris had received 25 positive statements and zero negative.

In contrast, Trump had been on the receiving end of just five positive comments and 66 negative comments, giving him a spin score of positive 7%.

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“While our spin score similarly excludes all Democratic soundbites about the Republican nominee, ABC’s reporters and anchors either jumped in to criticize Trump themselves, or broadcast negative comments from non-partisan sources to impart a heavily negative spin to the former President’s coverage,” Rich Noyes wrote of the results.

The MRC study found that Harris also had coverage slanting in her favor on CBS (94%) and NBC (71%), but ABC’s 100% was far and away the standout. Trump’s negative coverage on the other two networks was fairly dramatic as well (77% on CBS and 86% on NBC) but did not reach the level of hostility seen at ABC.

Trump seems to have ABC’s number, however, and recently acknowledged the network’s leftward tilt during a press conference: “I’m going into very hostile territory shortly on a debate with ABC, George Slopodopoulos [sic] and that group. And ABC, I think, is the worst of everybody. I think they’re the worst, they’re the nastiest. They’re as bad as you can be. They’re worse than NBC, which is saying a lot.”

He went on to say that he had only accepted the debate on ABC because it was the only one he could get Harris to agree to do.