Outrage isn’t outrage unless it’s associated with President Trump and his administration, at least on broadcast news, which now suggests the president is more outrageous than criminal activity, according to a new analysis.
“Even a casual watcher of broadcast news these days knows that journalists are using increasingly emotional language in their reports. Case in point: the word ’outrage,’” writes Bill D’Agostino, an analyst for the Media Research Center, a conservative press watchdog.
He led an analysis which found the term “outrage” was used 229 times in ABC, CBS and NBC’s evening news reports in 2019.
The study found that the “Big Three” networks blamed Mr. Trump and Republicans for triggering more outrage throughout the year than “child abuse, sexual assault, racism, and even police brutality,” Mr. D’Agostino said.
The study found that the term “outrage” was used in 25 stories on child abuse, 14 stories on sexual assault, 28 times for stories which addressed racism and 45 accounts on police brutality.
“Despite all of the wars, crime and other horrors in the world, the media seemed to think U.S. politics was the biggest cause of outrage, with 64 political stories using the term,” he continued.
“But don’t think the term was employed even-handedly. President Trump and his fellow Republicans received the lion’s share of the blame in this category: 51 instances, or 80 percent of all political outrage, while Democrats accounted for less than one tenth of that (just five stories, or 8%). For the remaining eight cases, the individuals or organizations said to be causing outrage were not explicitly partisan,” the analyst said.
This practice is likely found elsewhere. This report did not include the use of “outrage” on CNN, MSNBC or other cable news sources.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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