For Every Minute Of Airtime Fox News Gave Obama Speech, Romney Got Seven

Fox News capped off election season 2012 by ignoring President Obama's late-night campaign speech in Des Moines, Iowa -- his last as a candidate -- to rerun an earlier broadcast of Bill O'Reilly's show. The decision to not cover Obama's last speech was not surprising considering the network has treated its airtime as an extension of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's communications efforts.

On Monday, the day before Election Day, Fox covered every single Romney speech save the last for a total airtime of 59 minutes. Fox News even kicked off its morning election coverage with Romney's speech in Orlando, Florida -- airing it for the entire 26 minutes.

By contrast, Fox covered only the first Obama speech in Madison, Wisconsin on Monday -- and went back to regular coverage after just eight minutes. Anchor Jenna Lee then directed viewers to head to FoxNews.com to watch the rest.

MSNBC aired the first three of Romney's speeches on Monday for total airtime of 5 minutes, but covered all three of Obama's speeches for a total of 44 minutes. MSNBC aired Obama's final speech in its entirety, which lasted close to a half hour.

CNN was the only network to cover every single speech from both candidates on Monday. CNN gave Romney speeches 66 minutes of total airtime while Obama speeches received 39 minutes of airtime.

In the five days leading up to Election Day, Fox has given Romney speeches unprecedented coverage -- a near four and a half total hours. Obama speeches, meanwhile, have been aired for just 35 minutes total.

From November 1 through November 5, Fox News aired Romney speeches for a total of 253 minutes, as opposed to 35 minutes for Obama -- giving Romney a whopping 623 percent more airtime to expound on his message. Think of it this way: For every minute of airtime Obama received, Fox gave Romney a little over seven.

Moreover, Fox hasn't just provided more airtime to Romney, it has aired his comments uninterrupted at least once each day since November 1, when the network aired his entire 25 minute speech in Roanoke, Virginia. On November 2, Fox aired Romney's entire speech in West Allis, Wisconsin, which lasted about 26 minutes.

The pattern continued on November 3 and 4 when Fox aired two of Romney's entire speeches on each day.

On November 5, Fox aired Romney's entire 26-minute remarks in Orlando, Florida.

Fox has not afforded Obama the same sweeping coverage.