O'Reilly Cites 'Stunning' MRC Study on Nets Ignoring Midterms; Carville Tries to Dismiss It

Kyle Drennen | October 24, 2014
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More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.

On his Fox News show Thursday night, host Bill O'Reilly cited the Media Research Center study on the network evening newscasts censoring coverage of the 2014 midterms: "Eight years ago, the nightly network newscasts went full out to cover the campaigns, which Democrats were favored to win....But this time around, the graph is far different. At this point in time, ABC News did 36 election reports eight years ago. So far this year, zero, nothing. CBS, 58 in year 2006. 14 this year. NBC, 65 eight years ago. 11 this year. Simply stunning."

O'Reilly turned to Democratic strategist James Carville for reaction, who promptly tried to defend the lack of coverage: "I think the more plausible explanation is, you know, President Obama hasn't been able to change politics and inspire people, and politics is not selling very well on network news....I think the network people are striving for ratings and to make money. I don't think that ideology is the first thing they think about."

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