ABC presidential debate moderator’s newscast has given 100% positive coverage to Kamala Harris

MRC analysts reviewed all 100 campaign stories that aired on ABC’s World News Tonight from the day Harris entered the race (July 21) through September 6, including weekends. Our analysts found 25 clearly positive statements about Harris from reporters, anchors, voters or other non-partisan sources, with zero negative statements – none. That computes to a gravity-defying 100 percent positive spin score for the vice president.

As for Trump, our analysts found just five clearly positive comments vs. 66 negative statements, for a dismal 7 percent positive (93 percent negative) spin score.

Our measure of good press/bad press omits partisan comments, as well as “horse race” assessments about the candidates’ poll standings and prospects. So while viewers of ABC’s World News Tonight certainly heard negative comments about Harris during these past six-and-a-half weeks, all of them were from Trump, his campaign team, or other Republicans – never from reporters or nonpartisan sources.

At the same time, 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.

During these same weeks, both the CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News also delivered highly positive coverage for Harris, and mostly negative coverage for Trump, yet not as extreme as we found with ABC’s World News Tonight. Employing the same methodology, coverage of Harris was 94 percent positive on CBS, and 71 percent positive on NBC – historically good press, but not as good as the 100 percent positive press she received on ABC.

As for Trump, his coverage was 77 percent negative on CBS, and 86 percent negative on NBC – extremely hostile, but not as dreadful as the whopping 93 percent negative coverage he received on ABC.