Between August 7 and December 8, Media Matters tracked all weekday guest appearances on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. Administration officials, Trump’s family, and Trump’s personal lawyer appeared on Fox News five times more often than on CNN and MSNBC combined.
Research/Study
Study: Trump officials appeared on Fox News over 5 times more often than on CNN and MSNBC combined
Four months of guests on cable news
Written by Rob Savillo & Lis Power
Published
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In this study:
- Prominent Trump administration officials and advocates (the president, his cabinet and administration, his family, and his personal lawyer) appeared 135 times on weekday Fox News programming yet appeared only 19 and seven times on CNN and MSNBC, respectively.
- More than half of the guest appearances by those Trump officials and advocates on Fox were concentrated on Fox & Friends and Hannity. Trump-linked guests appeared on each of those two shows more than on both MSNBC and CNN combined.
- 91 percent of elected congressional and gubernatorial officials who appeared on Fox were Republican.
- MSNBC and CNN hosted congressional Democrats and Democratic governors over Republicans nearly 4-to-1 and 3-to-1, respectively.
Media Matters collected all weekday guest appearances on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC from August 7 to December 8, 2017. In those four months, Media Matters catalogued all guests who appeared on the three major cable news networks -- CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC -- during the networks’ weekday schedules from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. We recorded persons who appeared in interviews or as a part of a panel in the study. We counted each such person once per show each weekday, which constituted a “guest appearance.” Persons in pre-recorded clips were not counted as guest appearances, but persons in pre-recorded interviews airing for the first time were counted. Guest appearances were counted on only their first airing; subsequent airings of prior interviews or panels were not counted. Network correspondents providing updates to ongoing stories or filing pre-recorded news packages were not counted as guest appearances.
Administration officials, Trump’s family, and Trump’s personal lawyer continued their preference for Fox News
Fox News hosted prominent Trump-linked guests 135 times. Between August 7 and December 8, Trump-linked guests appeared overwhelmingly on Fox as opposed to CNN or MSNBC. Out of 161 total appearances, 135 were on Fox while just 19 were on CNN and only seven were on MSNBC. 84 percent of all Trump-linked guest appearances were on Fox News.
Sarah Wasko / Media MattersWhite House counselor Kellyanne Conway was the most frequent Trump-linked guest. Conway appeared on weekday cable news 43 times between August 7 and December 8. The next most frequent guests were Mick Mulvaney, director of Office of Management and Budget and Jay Sekulow, Trump’s personal lawyer, at a distant second with 14 appearances each. Thirty-nine of Conway's 43 appearances were on Fox.
Sarah Wasko / Media MattersFox & Friends and Hannity hosted the most Trump-linked guests. In the time period studied, Fox & Friends hosted Trump-linked guests 49 times, and Hannity hosted them 27 times. Conway was the most frequent Trump-linked guest on Fox & Friends with 16 appearances while Sekulow was the most frequent Trump-linked guest on Hannity with 11 appearances. Both Hannity and Fox & Friends hosted more Trump-linked guests than all of CNN and MSNBC combined. During a December 21 appearance on Fox & Friends, Conway thanked the hosts for helping “get our message out here” and said she and the White House “appreciate the platform.” [Media Matters, 12/21/17]
Sarah Wasko / Media MattersCable news: Lots of journalists and pundits talking to other journalists and pundits
The top 10 guests on each network were dominated by journalists and paid network contributors. CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger was the network’s most frequent guest (Chris Cillizza, former Washington Post reporter who was hired by the network in March, was the second most-popular guest). Robert Costa, Washington Post national political reporter and MSNBC political analyst, was MSNBC’s most frequent guest, and Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano was Fox’s top guest.
Top 10 CNN guests
AppearancesBorger, Gloria
179Cillizza, Chris
171Toobin, Jeffrey
138Chalian, David
113Kirby, John
113Bash, Dana
109Mudd, Philip
108Preston, Mark
106Henderson, Nia-Malika
81Berg, Rebecca
80Top 10 Fox News guests
AppearancesNapolitano, Andrew
95Stirewalt, Chris
78Hurt, Charles
66Chaffetz, Jason
66Bolton, John
55Rove, Karl
55York, Byron
53Waltz, Michael
53Gingrich, Newt
52Tarlov, Jessica
52Keane, Jack
52Top 10 MSNBC guests
AppearancesCosta, Robert
80Steele, Michael
79Confessore, Nicholas
68Przybyla, Heidi
67Robinson, Eugene
67Miller, Matthew
66Dilanian, Ken
65Rucker, Philip
64Jordan, Elise
63Alcindor, Yamiche
63Congressional and gubernatorial guests were divided along partisan lines between networks
On Fox News, congressional Republicans and Republican governors dominated. For all congressional and gubernatorial guests on Fox, Republicans held a more than 9-to-1 appearance advantage over Democrats. On the flip side, such Democratic officials were hosted more often than their Republican counterparts on MSNBC and CNN -- 72 percent to 28 percent and 62 percent to 38 percent, respectively.
Sarah Wasko / Media MattersThe top 10 Democrats appeared on cable news more often than their Republican counterparts. The top 10 congressional Democrats and Democratic governors together made 417 appearances across all three cable networks while such Republicans only appeared a total of 288 times. Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) was the top elected Democratic guest with 65 appearances. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) was the top elected Republican with 49 appearances.
Top 10 Democratic guests
Profession
AppearancesSwalwell, Eric
Representative, California
65Blumenthal, Richard
Senator, Connecticut
54Schiff, Adam
Representative, California
47Coons, Chris
Senator, Delaware
42Rossello, Ricardo
Governor, Puerto Rico
41Speier, Jackie
Representative, California
39Cardin, Ben
Senator, Maryland
33Himes, Jim
Representative, Connecticut
28Murphy, Chris
Representative, Connecticut
24Markey, Ed
Senator, Massachusetts
22Lieu, Ted
Representative, California
22Top 10 Republican guests
Profession
AppearancesKinzinger, Adam
Representative, Illinois
49DeSantis, Ron
Representative, Florida
35Brady, Kevin
Representative, Texas
29Jordan, Jim
Representative, Ohio
28King, Peter T.
Representative, New York
28Duffy, Sean
Representative, Wisconsin
27Dent, Charlie
Representative, Pennsylvania
24Taylor, Scott
Representative, Virginia
23Reed, Tom
Representative, New York
23Thune, John
Senator, South Dakota
22The guests of Trump’s favorite Fox shows, Fox & Friends and Hannity
Gregg Jarrett and Andrew Napolitano led in total appearances on Trump’s favorite Fox shows. Jarrett, a Fox News legal analyst, appeared on Hannity 40 times over the course of the study. Napolitano was Fox & Friends top guest with 27 appearances between August 7 and December 8. The second most frequent guest on Hannity was Sebastian Gorka, the former deputy assistant to Trump and current Fox News national security strategist.
Top 10 Hannity guests
AppearancesJarrett, Gregg
40Gorka, Sebastian
28Rivera, Geraldo
25Carter, Sara
24Elder, Larry
20Gingrich, Newt
19Solomon, John
15Clarke, David
14Schoen, Doug
14Parks, Daryl
13Top 10 Fox & Friends guests
AppearancesNapolitano, Andrew
27Varney, Stuart
25Rivera, Geraldo
18Massi, Bob
18Bongino, Dan
17Conway, Kellyanne
16Gingrich, Newt
13Chaffetz, Jason
12Ingraham, Laura
12Porcher, Darrin
11Cortes, Steve
11Knutsson, Kurt
11Shimkus, Carley
11Methodology
Media Matters’ research staff reviewed video of CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC from August 7 to December 8, 2017, between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. each weekday.
We recorded persons who appeared in interviews or as a part of a panel in the study. We counted each such person once per show episode each weekday, which constituted a “guest appearance.” Persons in pre-recorded clips were not counted as guest appearances, but persons in pre-recorded interviews airing for the first time were counted. Guest appearances were counted on only their first airing; subsequent airings of prior interviews or panels were not counted. Network correspondents providing updates to ongoing stories or filing pre-recorded news packages were not counted as guest appearances.
We recorded the following people as Trump-linked guests when they appeared for interviews or as a part of a panel: members of the Trump administration’s cabinet, as listed on the official White House website; Trump’s senior advisers and communications staffers (Kellyanne Conway, Sebastian Gorka (during his tenure), Hope Hicks, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and Dan Scavino); members of Trump’s immediate family (including Trump himself); and Trump’s personal lawyer (Jay Sekulow).
We coded only currently serving members of the House and Senate and governors in our ideological analysis, and only coded such persons as Democrats or Republicans. Because Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) ran on the Democratic ticket in 2016, we counted him as a Democrat for the purposes of this study. We also counted Sen. Angus King (I-ME) as a Democrat because of his prior affiliation with the Democratic Party and because he currently caucuses with the Democratic Party in the Senate. Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rossello, though a member of the conservative New Progressive Party, was coded as a Democrat for his prior work as a Democratic delegate for then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2008 and then-President Barack Obama in 2012, and he is supported as a Democratic governor by the independent voluntary political organization Democratic Governors Association.
Additional research by Media Matters' research department.