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Study: Majority of Trump's Media Coverage Is Negative

Pew results support Trump's claims of media bias

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October 3, 2017

A new study released Monday found that most of the media's coverage of the Trump administration has been negative, bolstering President Donald Trump's claims that the press is biased against him.

The Pew Research Center conducted the study on media coverage of the Trump presidency and showed in a content analysis that 62 percent of the coverage was negative, while only five percent was positive, NBC News reports.

Trump's predecessor in the White House, Barack Obama, was treated very differently by the media in the early stages of his presidency, according to the study. In early 2009, 42 percent of Obama's coverage was positive and only 20 percent was negative.

Former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton both received more negative than positive coverage early in their administrations, but not to the same degree as Trump. Twenty-eight percent of Bush's coverage was negative in 2001 and 22 percent was positive, while 28 percent of Clinton's coverage was negative in 1993 and 27 percent was positive.

Coverage of Trump primarily focused on "character and leadership" rather than policy, according to the Pew Research Center.

The study was conducted from Jan. 21 to April 30 and included 24 media outlets and 3,000 news stories.

The results appear to support Trump's frequent attacks against the media for being biased against him and his administration. The attacks began during his campaign and continued into his presidency.