A Washington Free Beacon analysis found that cable news networks mentioned former Trump adviser Roger Stone nearly 15 times as often as George Washington on Washington's birthday.
A TVEyes search finds that Roger Stone was mentioned 131 times on Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN on Monday. Excluding references to Washington, D.C., Washington state, and the Washington Post, the founding father received only nine mentions.
While all three networks mentioned Stone roughly the same number of times, Fox News accounted for nearly every mention of George Washington. Anchors and guests on Fox named the nation's first president eight times. MSNBC's Joy Reid mentioned Washington in her closing monologue, while CNN did not mention him at all.
The nonstop Stone coverage came despite there being no major developments in the story. Much of the coverage focused on the Justice Department's decision to lower its sentencing recommendations, as well as Attorney General William Barr's defense of the move in a Thursday interview.
The Stone coverage came at the expense of other developing stories. On Fox News and MSNBC, for example, there were more mentions of Roger Stone—46 and 43, respectively—than coronavirus—40 and 28. Kobe Bryant, the subject of a viral video tribute at Sunday's NBA All-Star Game, received a combined 23 mentions across all three cable networks.
While commonly referred to as "President's Day" at the state level, the federal government still refers to Monday's holiday as "George Washington's Birthday." The networks also made few references to "President's Day." It was mentioned 8 times by CNN, 10 times by MSNBC, and 16 times by Fox News.