Several mainstream news outlets — including The Associated Press, CBS News, and CNN — failed to post on Facebook and/or TikTok about former President Donald Trump’s reported promise to reverse President Joe Biden's actions on climate change as he asked oil executives to raise $1 billion for his presidential campaign. However, days later, these same mainstream outlets posted about Vice President Kamala Harris’ use of an expletive during a health forum discussion for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander organizations.

According to a May 9 Washington Post report, Trump met “with some of the country’s top oil executives at his Mar-a-Lago Club last month” and proposed a “deal” in which they would raise $1 billion for his election campaign and he would apparently, in turn, reverse and stop President Joe Biden’s environmental rules and policies. Notably, Big Oil and industry allies have already poured millions of dollars into Trump's joint fundraising committee to help cover his legal fees. 

From May 9, when this story broke, through May 12, MSNBC was the only major broadcast and cable TV news network to cover Trump’s proposition to oil executives. Additional analysis found that from May 9 through May 16 top local newspapers and TV outlets in the largest media markets to reach the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin did not bring the story to local audiences, with just one exception. This omission is part of a trend of mainstream news outlets failing to adequately report on Trump’s extreme positions, particularly about climate change. 

Media Matters has now found that a number of mainstream outlets, including broadcast and cable networks, also failed to post on social media about Trump’s comments. Conversely, those same outlets posted about Harris’ use of profane language at a health forum discussion on May 13. During the discussion, Harris said that sometimes “you need to kick that fucking door down” when discussing the importance of breaking down barriers. 

On Facebook, numerous mainstream news outlets failed to post about Trump’s corrupt commitment to slash environmental regulations but did post about Harris’ use of an expletive 

Numerous Facebook pages of national news outlets did not post about Trump’s reported proposition to Big Oil executives to stop and reverse environmental regulations but did post about Harris’ use of an expletive during a health forum. These Facebook pages were: The Associated Press, CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell, CBS Mornings, CBS News, CNN, CNN International, CNN Politics, PBS NewsHour, Time, and USA Today.

On TikTok, C-SPAN, The Independent, The Hill, MSNBC, and Newsweek ignored Trump’s proposition to Big Oil executives but did post about Harris using an expletive 

TikTok accounts of national mainstream news outlets, including C-SPAN, Independent USA, The Hill Politics, MSNBC, and Newsweek, ignored Trump’s commitment to slash environmental regulations but did upload videos about Harris swearing at a health forum. (Notably, The Hill did post about Trump's proposition to oil executives on Facebook).

Of these videos about Harris swearing, MSNBC’s video earned the highest engagement, with over 6,000 likes and over 320,000 views. Newsweek’s video earned the second highest levels of engagement with over 5,000 likes and over 230,000 views.