STUDY: Networks Obsess Over ‘Far Right,’ Oblivious to ‘Far Left’

by Bill D’Agostino

Television broadcast networks tend to slap a “far-right” label onto anything even remotely conservative, often referring to Republican members of Congress, fringe conspiracy theorists, and outright domestic terrorists with identical terminology for all three. Yet these same networks refuse even to acknowledge the existence of a “far-left,” — and in fact, since the 2022 midterms, they have not applied that label to any group or individual even a single time.
 
An MRC study found that between November 9, 2022 (the day after the 2022 midterm elections) and March 21, broadcast networks ABC, CBS, and NBC used such labels as “far-right,” “extreme right,” and “ultraconservative,” a total of 101 times on their flagship morning and evening shows, as well as their Sunday political talk shows. During that same period, analysts found only one instance in which a journalist used an equivalent “far-left” label.
 
That single case occurred during the January 22 edition of NBC’s Meet The Press, in which moderator Chuck Todd attempted to frame the overturned Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision as a “middle ground” compromise in the abortion debate:

When you look at the public’s opinion about Roe, and in some ways Roe has become more popular since it was overturned, is that the middle ground, the public — you know, maybe nobody loved it on the far left and far right, but was that actually the right middle ground for the American public?

Across all three broadcast networks, the totality of airtime the fringe left received since November was limited to that single vague reference.
 
Meanwhile, “far-right” and similar labels were applied to a very wide array of individuals. Republican members of Congress were by far the most heavily labeled group (38 times), followed by general references such as “the far right,” or “extreme rightwing Twitter users,” (19 times). There were 12 instances of labeling for the administration of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 11 cases for the Oathkeepers, 10 cases for the radical German group that attempted a coup in late 2022, and five for the supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. All others were labeled only once or twice.
 
Watch the video below for a sample of the coverage:
 

 
This 101-to-1 disparity tracks with the broadcast networks’ well-established habit of obfuscating or outright ignoring extremism from the left.
 
For example, the pro-abortion radical who attempted to murder Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and his family received a tiny fraction — less than 10 percent — of the coverage that Paul Pelosi’s attacker received during the first five days following each incident. The attempt on Justice Kavanaugh’s life also received several orders of magnitude less coverage than the January 6 hearings did during an equivalent time frame.

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