STUDY: Broadcast Networks Continue To Prioritize Illegal Aliens Over America; ABC, CBS, NBC Border Coverage Focused ‘almost exclusively’ On ‘plight of illegal immigrants’ While Less Than 2% of Airtime Addressed Drug Trafficking Crisis, Watchdog Finds
STUDY: Broadcast Networks Continue To Prioritize Illegal Aliens Over America:
The latest figures from the U.S. government show that while monthly border encounters decreased somewhat in June, they are still nearly twice as high as they were when President Biden first took office in January of 2021. But despite overcrowded processing facilities and thousands of unauthorized daily crossings, ABC, CBS, and NBC’s flagship evening newscasts prefer to cover the crisis from the perspective of illegal immigrants.
MRC analysts examined all broadcast coverage of America’s immigration crisis that aired between October 1, 2022 and July 20, 2023. Since our previous update in October of 2022, the big three broadcast networks have aired just over 254 minutes of border crisis coverage on their evening newscasts. However, less than 15 percent of that airtime (14.6%) discussed the issues posed by the massive influx of uninvited illegal aliens. For example, only 1.9 percent was spent on the massive amount of illegal substances being smuggled into the country.
The broadcast networks were intensely interested in Title 42 — a COVID-era restriction lifted in May of this year — and in fact that topic alone comprised more than half of their border coverage. Almost every discussion of Title 42 emphasized how difficult the restriction had made life for would-be illegal immigrants lined up at the border.
Title 42 was also the driving force behind immigration stories dealing with other topics. Reports about the five other topics listed above were much more frequent during December and May, when Title 42 was first kept in place by the Supreme Court, and then lifted by the Biden administration, respectively.
As is often the case with ABC, CBS, and NBC, the newscasts continued to focus almost exclusively on the plight of illegal immigrants. Nearly every full-length report included sound bites from migrants desperate to enter the United States. Throughout all 254 minutes of border coverage, they never once used the terms “illegal immigration,” “illegal immigrant,” or “illegal alien.” They also failed to report on a single crime committed by an illegal alien who had entered the country during this period. —>READ MORE HERE
ABC, CBS, NBC border coverage focused ‘almost exclusively’ on ‘plight of illegal immigrants’ while less than 2% of airtime addressed drug trafficking crisis, watchdog finds:
A recent study conducted by the conservative watchdog group Media Research Center found that ABC, CBS, and NBC’s coverage of the southern border focused “almost exclusively” on the “plight of illegal immigrants” and dedicated less than 2% of that airtime to reporting on the drug trafficking crisis.On Monday, MRC released the results of a study that examined the media’s coverage of the border between October 1, 2022, and July 20, 2023. The watchdog group reviewed over 254 minutes of southern border coverage from ABC, CBS, and NBC’s evening newscasts.
Less than 15% of the border coverage addressed issues related to the influx of illegal immigration under the Biden administration. Additionally, less than 2% of that airtime reported on the illegal drug trafficking crisis.
Instead, the big broadcast networks were more concerned about covering migrants’ hardships and the ending of the Trump administration’s Title 42, which allowed the United States to expel illegal migrants back to Mexico.
The networks spent more than half of the 254 minutes covering the Trump-era policy, slamming the restriction for making life more difficult for migrants waiting to cross the border into the U.S., MRC reported. —>READ MORE HERE
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