A new study from the Media Research Center finds Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) has received only seven minutes of total coverage from ABC News in 2019.
The MRC study tallied the amount of time ABC News has spent covering each candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. Former vice president Joe Biden received the most coverage with 68 minutes, nearly 10 times the amount Sanders received. Sanders is tied with South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg with the fifth-most attention from ABC News out of the 2020 candidates, despite Sanders's consistent top-three showing in early state and national primary polls.
The MRC, a conservative-leaning media watchdog, commissioned the study because ABC News is broadcasting Thursday night's Democratic debate.
Biden dwarfed the field, with Sen. Kamala Harris (Calif.) in second place with 15 minutes. Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren (12 minutes) and former representative Beto O'Rourke (eight minutes) both got more attention than Sanders.
The MRC found Biden got a whopping 52.5 percent of the total minutes dedicated to Democratic presidential candidates.
Sanders also struggled for media attention during his surprisingly strong challenge to Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic nomination. While the 2020 field had, at one point, more than two dozen contenders, Clinton and Sanders were the only two serious candidates for the Democratic nomination in 2016.
Sanders has been more likely than most Democratic candidates to gripe about his media coverage. He theorized last month that the Washington Post wrote negative stories about him because its owner, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos, disapproved of Sanders's attacks on the tech giant.