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1/ This was published in December 2016, but the trends it describes go back 8 presidential elections. Thus, the negative coverage of presidential campaigns and journalists' cynicism is not of recent vintage. In short, unless the top 10 media have changed (LA & NY Times, WaPo, WSJ 
2/ USA Today, ABC, CBS, & NBC news, CNN Situation Room, & Fox News Special Report), then this type of coverage will be seen in 2019 and 2020. An additional factor, not covered, is that political bots can influence the flow of information and the news coverage, and, Trump is very
3/ gifted at dominating coverage. But, it is the negative coverage and bias towards negative coverage in this report I want to highlight. Clinton's negative coverage was 6 percentage points higher than Trump's. Go figure.
4/ Overall, for both candidates, leadership/experience qualities (3%) and policy positions (4%) were a tiny part of the coverage. The "horserace" dominated. That was a real disservice to Clinton and the voters. That will probably repeat.
5/ The tone of the coverage across all types of news was uniformly negative.
6/ Trump's so-called policy stands got 12% of his coverage. These were basically his madman chants "build the wall," "lock her up."
7/ Only 9% of Clinton's coverage related to her policy issues. Yup, less than Trump's ravings of a madman.
8/
9/ Trump had a series of scandals, that apparently worked to his favor. Clinton's controversies or scandals were more focused. To me, this suggests Dems ought to pick a few Trump weaknesses and pound them day and night.
10/ The overall coverage of Clinton was negative. Even her experience and leadership qualities were negative. And she was running against an accused sexual assaulter/rapist, 6 bankruptcies. For 2020, the Dems have to amplify his negatives.
11/ This trend from skepticism to cynicism is long standing. The study quotes the WaPo's David Broder from 1994.
12/ The negative tone goes back 8 presidential campaigns, so this is not just Chuck Todd being an ass. The major news media are doing a great disservice to the American people. Not quite "enemies," but supportive of the overall GOP/Christian Right negative view of fed/govt/USA.
