White House chaos is overshadowing broadcast news coverage of Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings

Written by Lis Power

Published


Melissa Joskow / Media Matters

The Senate is currently in the middle of weeklong hearings to vet President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh’s appointment could redefine the court for decades to come, but coverage of his hearings on the CBS, NBC, and ABC morning and evening news programs has been drowned out by Bob Woodward’s book Fear: Trump in the White House and an anonymous opinion piece in The New York Times by a “senior official in the Trump administration.” Both portray an administration in utter chaos, which isn’t exactly breaking news.


Melissa Joskow / Media Matters

Since the first day of hearings ended, broadcast evening and morning news shows have spent over twice the amount of time on the White House’s chaos as on Kavanaugh. Since Tuesday night, broadcast news shows have discussed Kavanaugh for just under 42 minutes while they have discussed Woodward’s book and the Times op-ed for one hour and 35 minutes.


Melissa Joskow / Media Matters

On Tuesday, Republicans pushed forward with hearings for Kavanaugh despite objections from Democrats over thousands of his documents that were not released or made available to the public. Tuesday was also the day that excerpts from Woodward’s book Fear were released. As The Washington Post put it in a headline, “Woodward’s new book reveals a ‘nervous breakdown’ of Trump’s presidency.” Wednesday, Kavanaugh again faced questioning on Capitol Hill, with the hearings lasting well into the evening. Wednesday afternoon, The New York Times published an anonymous opinion piece by a “senior official in the Trump administration.” Titled “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration,” it said some in the administration “have vowed to thwart parts of [Trump’s] agenda.”

While Woodward’s book and the op-ed are certainly newsworthy to an extent, the overarching point of these pieces -- Trump is out of control -- was already widely accepted. In fact, many responded to the news by noting that it really wasn’t anything new and that they weren’t surprised.

Problematic and lacking coverage of Kavanaugh has been an ongoing issue; it’s past time to start paying attention.