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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 

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.

  • 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 Matters
    Sarah Wasko / Media Matters

    White 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 Matters
    Sarah Wasko / Media Matters

    Fox & 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 Matters
    Sarah Wasko / Media Matters

    Cable 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 Appearances
    Borger, Gloria 179
    Cillizza, Chris 171
    Toobin, Jeffrey 138
    Chalian, David 113
    Kirby, John 113
    Bash, Dana 109
    Mudd, Philip 108
    Preston, Mark 106
    Henderson, Nia-Malika 81
    Berg, Rebecca 80
    Top 10 Fox News guests Appearances
    Napolitano, Andrew 95
    Stirewalt, Chris 78
    Hurt, Charles 66
    Chaffetz, Jason 66
    Bolton, John 55
    Rove, Karl 55
    York, Byron 53
    Waltz, Michael 53
    Gingrich, Newt 52
    Tarlov, Jessica 52
    Keane, Jack 52
    Top 10 MSNBC guests Appearances
    Costa, Robert 80
    Steele, Michael 79
    Confessore, Nicholas 68
    Przybyla, Heidi 67
    Robinson, Eugene 67
    Miller, Matthew 66
    Dilanian, Ken 65
    Rucker, Philip 64
    Jordan, Elise 63
    Alcindor, Yamiche 63

    Congressional 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 Matters
    Sarah Wasko / Media Matters

    The 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 Appearances
    Swalwell, Eric Representative, California 65
    Blumenthal, Richard Senator, Connecticut 54
    Schiff, Adam Representative, California 47
    Coons, Chris Senator, Delaware 42
    Rossello, Ricardo Governor, Puerto Rico 41
    Speier, Jackie Representative, California 39
    Cardin, Ben Senator, Maryland 33
    Himes, Jim Representative, Connecticut 28
    Murphy, Chris Representative, Connecticut 24
    Markey, Ed Senator, Massachusetts 22
    Lieu, Ted Representative, California 22
    Top 10 Republican guests Profession Appearances
    Kinzinger, Adam Representative, Illinois 49
    DeSantis, Ron Representative, Florida 35
    Brady, Kevin Representative, Texas 29
    Jordan, Jim Representative, Ohio 28
    King, Peter T. Representative, New York 28
    Duffy, Sean Representative, Wisconsin 27
    Dent, Charlie Representative, Pennsylvania 24
    Taylor, Scott Representative, Virginia 23
    Reed, Tom Representative, New York 23
    Thune, John Senator, South Dakota 22

    The 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 Appearances
    Jarrett, Gregg 40
    Gorka, Sebastian 28
    Rivera, Geraldo 25
    Carter, Sara 24
    Elder, Larry 20
    Gingrich, Newt 19
    Solomon, John 15
    Clarke, David 14
    Schoen, Doug 14
    Parks, Daryl 13
    Top 10 Fox & Friends guests Appearances
    Napolitano, Andrew 27
    Varney, Stuart 25
    Rivera, Geraldo 18
    Massi, Bob 18
    Bongino, Dan 17
    Conway, Kellyanne 16
    Gingrich, Newt 13
    Chaffetz, Jason 12
    Ingraham, Laura 12
    Porcher, Darrin 11
    Cortes, Steve 11
    Knutsson, Kurt 11
    Shimkus, Carley 11

    Methodology

    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.