Former Vice President Joe Biden returned to the top of the media heap last week.
After two weeks spent trailing behind Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in the share of online news stories that mention him, Biden was once again the most mentioned candidate in online news, according to data from Media Cloud,1 a database of online news stories.
And as he has for weeks, he was mentioned in more cable news clips than any other Demcoratic candidate for president. Biden was mentioned in about half of all the clips that mentioned any 2020 Democratic contender last week, according to data from the TV News Archive,2 which chops up cable news across the three networks we monitor — CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC — into 15-second clips. That’s the highest share of cable and online news coverage that Biden has received since the second Democratic debate, and almost the highest since the first debate.
Biden got the most media mentions last week
Share of 15-second cable news clips mentioning each candidate vs. share of online stories mentioning each candidate in a Media Cloud search
| Cable TV clips the week of … | online stories the week of … | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | 8/18/19 | 8/25/19 | diff | 8/18/19 | 8/25/19 | diff |
| Joe Biden | 41.6% | 49.7% | +8.1 | 38.0% | 45.8% | +7.9 |
| Bernie Sanders | 16.9 | 18.5 | +1.6 | 45.7 | 42.1 | -3.6 |
| Elizabeth Warren | 22.0 | 24.3 | +2.3 | 41.1 | 41.1 | +0.0 |
| Kamala Harris | 8.3 | 5.0 | -3.3 | 20.1 | 23.5 | +3.4 |
| Pete Buttigieg | 3.3 | 2.6 | -0.7 | 18.2 | 17.7 | -0.4 |
| Cory Booker | 2.9 | 1.9 | -1.0 | 14.0 | 14.8 | +0.8 |
| Andrew Yang | 1.4 | 1.8 | +0.4 | 6.5 | 12.2 | +5.6 |
| Julian Castro | 2.0 | 1.3 | -0.7 | 9.0 | 10.9 | +1.9 |
| Kirsten Gillibrand | 1.1 | 3.7 | +2.6 | 8.2 | 10.5 | +2.3 |
| Amy Klobuchar | 0.5 | 1.7 | +1.2 | 8.9 | 8.4 | -0.5 |
| Tom Steyer | 4.4 | 5.2 | +0.8 | 4.7 | 8.0 | +3.3 |
| Beto O’Rourke | 3.5 | 2.7 | -0.8 | 4.8 | 7.8 | +2.9 |
| Tulsi Gabbard | 0.7 | 2.2 | +1.5 | 5.3 | 7.8 | +2.5 |
| Bill de Blasio | 2.4 | 2.2 | -0.2 | 7.7 | 7.3 | -0.4 |
| Marianne Williamson | 0.8 | 0.8 | +0.0 | 5.1 | 5.8 | +0.6 |
| Steve Bullock | 1.1 | 1.8 | +0.7 | 3.6 | 5.6 | +1.9 |
| Michael Bennet | 0.3 | 0.5 | +0.2 | 3.9 | 5.3 | +1.4 |
| Tim Ryan | 0.4 | 0.8 | +0.4 | 3.1 | 4.2 | +1.1 |
| John Delaney | 1.1 | 0.6 | -0.5 | 4.1 | 3.1 | -1.0 |
| Joe Sestak | 0.0 | 0.0 | +0.0 | 1.0 | 1.4 | +0.4 |
| Jay Inslee | 4.3 | — | — | 12.3 | — | — |
| Seth Moulton | 2.2 | — | — | 6.1 | — | — |
While Biden’s coverage increased on both mediums, both Warren and Sanders were mentioned a little more in cable news clips but not in online news stories. The biggest gain of the week — outside of Biden — came from Andrew Yang, whose share of online news stories increased the most after that of the former vice president. Yang’s share of online news mentions almost doubled between last week and the previous week, but he didn’t see much of an increase in the share of cable news clips that mentioned him. Last Tuesday, the hashtag #YangMediaBlackout trended on Twitter after CNN didn’t include him in a graphic of a Quinnipiac poll, even though he polled higher than another candidate who was included.
Despite the increase in Yang’s online coverage, he still doesn’t get anywhere near as much media attention as the highest-polling candidates in either medium. As the field continues to winnow, the media seems to be focusing more of its attention on Biden, Warren and Sanders.
Check out the data behind this series and check back each week for an update on which candidates are getting the most coverage on cable and online.