On third night at RNC, FOX aired 16 minutes more than at DNC; will FOX air only 33 minutes on night four?

Written by Katie Barge, Michelle Jeung & Avi Zollman

Published

After the third night of the Republican National Convention (RNC), Media Matters for America found that FOX News Channel has aired 39 minutes more of live speech coverage of the first three nights of the RNC than it aired of the first three nights of the Democratic National Convention (DNC). On the third night of the RNC alone, FOX News Channel showed 16 minutes more of live speech coverage than it did of third-night DNC speeches.

Prior to the convention, FOX News Channel host Cal Thomas said that, in order to be “fair and balanced,” RNC coverage should not differ from DNC coverage. FOX would have to air 33 minutes of live speeches on the final night of the RNC to achieve Thomas's goal -- an unlikely prospect given that President George W. Bush's acceptance speech is scheduled for Thursday night.

In comparison with other cable news networks, FOX News Channel has aired 22 minutes fewer than CNN and 24 minutes fewer than MSNBC of live speech coverage from the RNC. But there was a much greater disparity in coverage after three nights of DNC coverage: By the end of night three at the DNC, FOX News Channel had aired one hour and 13 minutes fewer than CNN and one hour and 23 minutes fewer than MSNBC of live speech coverage.

LIVE DNC SPEECH AIRTIME
FOX CNN MSNBC
Day 1 0:41 1:10 1:07
Day 2 1:05 1:23 1:39
Day 3 0:42 1:08 1:05
Day 4 1:12 1:15 1:36
Total Three hours and 40 minutes Four hours and 56 minutes Five hours and 27 minutes
LIVE RNC SPEECH AIRTIME
FOX CNN MSNBC
Day 1 1:14 1:15 1:24
Day 2 0:55 1:15 1:03
Day 3 0:58 0:59 1:04
Day 4
Subtotal Three hours and 7 minutes Three hours and 29 minutes Three hours and 31 minutes