Same results.

STUDY: TV News Spends Shutdown Playing Defense for Democrats
For the past month the big three broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) have hammered both Congressional Republicans and President Trump with a wall of negative shutdown coverage, while largely shielding Democrats from blame for the now-historic gridlock.

MRC analysts examined every evening newscast on ABC, CBS, and NBC between October 1 and October 31, 2025. Across the 67 reports and news briefs which discussed the government shutdown, 87 percent of the coverage favored Democrats. Analysts found 83 evaluative statements in which anchors or reporters were critical of Republicans, but just twelve criticizing Democrats.

Summary of Findings

• Broadcast shutdown coverage heavily favored Democrats over Republicans (87% to 13%).
• Only 12 reports (less than one fifth) even mentioned that Senate Democrats had refused to vote for a clean continuing resolution.
• Not a single report mentioned that Democrats voted back in March to end the same Obamacare subsidies which they’re now demanding.

Democrats Routinely Shielded from Blame

Coverage across all three networks was conspicuously vague about how the shutdown even had occurred. There were only 12 instances in which any of the three outlets hinted that Senate Democrats had voted repeatedly against a continuing resolution. On both ABC and CBS, only 12.5 percent of reports on either network mentioned this basic detail. On NBC, that fact was included in just 31 percent of newscasts.

Reports often included lines about the Trump administration “pressuring Democrats,” or soundbites of Republicans demanding Democrats “fund the government,” but usually stopped short of explicitly acknowledging that Senate Democrats were the ones preventing a funding bill from passing.

No, SRSLY?!? Surely not. Why, even good ol’ Captain Renault himself couldn’t possibly be any more shocked than I am at this revoltin’ development.