Fox News host Neil Cavuto gave viewers a rare moment of transparency of the network's coverage of the Republican presidential field when he said, “You have been on with me so often ... you could practically be my co-anchor,” to candidate Ron Paul during last Friday's Your World with Neil Cavuto.
While Cavuto prefaced his comments with the observation from Paul's campaign staff that the Representative “deserves more publicity” and “deserves to be on more,” Paul is still a leading beneficiary of the Fox Primary.
Since the beginning of June, Paul ranks second for total appearances (33) and third for most time (3 hours and 19 minutes). Certainly, Fox hasn't neglected this presidential hopeful.
So who's winning the Fox Primary? Each week at Media Matters, we watch the interviews, crunch the numbers, and tell you what Fox is up to in the presidential campaign.
Last Week's Results
Total time: 2 hours and 22 minutes; Total appearances: 25
Most Total Airtime on Fox: John Bolton (49 minutes)
Most Total Appearances: John Bolton (11 appearances)
Fox Show with the Most Total Candidate Airtime: Your World with Neil Cavuto (23 minutes)
Fox Show with the Most Candidate Appearances: Fox and Friends, Hannity, and Your World with Neil Cavuto (3 appearances each)
Longest Candidate Interview: Fox News Sunday (14 minutes with Ron Paul)
Softball Question(s) of the Week: From the August 22 edition of Your World with Neil Cavuto, host Neil Cavuto asked candidate Mitt Romney this:
CAVUTO: No one doubts that you have the smarts, Governor. I -- I think what comes up a lot in these polls -- this latest one from Rasmussen, which shows the aforementioned Governor Perry leading you. These things, I know, are just quick snapshots -- but that you don`t appear to have the fire or emotion.
I`m just wondering whether that troubles you, of whether it`s going to be something that`s going to dog you -- that people just don`t think you`ve got the pizzazz, the oomph, to be president.
(A table of the August 22 - 28 data is available here.)
The Numbers Since June 1
Total time: 33 hours and 44 minutes*; Total appearances: 288*
Most Total Airtime on Fox since June 1: John Bolton (4 hours and 27 minutes)
Most Total Appearances since June 1: John Bolton (62 appearances)
Fox Show with the Most Total Candidate Airtime Since June 1: Hannity (5 hours and 23 minutes)*
Fox Show with the Most Candidate Appearances since June 1: On the Record with Greta Van Susteren (38 appearances)*
Longest Candidate Interview since June 1: Stossel (40 minutes with Gary Johnson)
(A table of all the data since June 1 is available here.)
Previous Fox Primary Reports
June 1 - 5
June 6 - 12
June 13 - 19
June 20 - 26
June 27 - July 4
July 5 - 10
July 11 - 17
July 18 - 24
July 25 - 31
August 1 - 7
August 8 - 14
August 15 - 21
Methodology
Media Matters searched the Nexis database for appearances on Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, and Fox News Sunday for the 14 declared and potential presidential candidates in question: Michele Bachmann, John Bolton, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Jon Huntsman, Gary Johnson, Thad McCotter, Sarah Palin, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Buddy Roemer, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum.
For programs where a transcript was unavailable, Media Matters reviewed the raw video.
Changes to the reports
Media Matters added McCotter to the data beginning on June 20 and Roemer beginning on July 18.
We stopped including Pawlenty and Trump in the data beginning on August 14; Pawlenty dropped out of the race on that date. And while Trump stated that he would no longer seek the Republican nomination but may instead run as an independent (on June 1, the beginning of this report), we decided to drop him from the data on this date.
*Correction: We have dropped all DeMint data from the report. During Laura Ingraham's June 14 show, DeMint told the conservative talk radio host that he is “not considering” a run for president in 2012. Media Matters regrets the error.