Former Vice President Joe Biden has dominated the cable news-o-sphere every week since he launched his campaign, but just how much has varied from week to week. According to data form the TV News Archive,1 on the three cable networks we monitor — CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC — last week Biden commanded almost as many mentions as every other candidate combined, just as he did when he launched his campaign in April. The TV News Archive tracks mentions by splitting each network’s daily coverage into 15-second clips, and Biden’s name came up in 48 percent of clips that mentioned any Democratic candidate last week. That’s essentially unchanged from 46 percent the previous week, but up dramatically from 38 percent the week before that.
Biden is still in a class of his own on cable news
How often each Democratic candidate was mentioned each week in news programming on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, counted by the number of 15-second clips that include each person’s full name
| Number of Clips | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Week of May 26 | Week of June 2 | ||
| Joe Biden | 1,610 | 1,706 | ||
| Elizabeth Warren | 437 | 414 | ||
| Bernie Sanders | 365 | 341 | ||
| Kamala Harris | 316 | 194 | ||
| Pete Buttigieg | 137 | 191 | ||
| Cory Booker | 125 | 129 | ||
| Beto O’Rourke | 112 | 92 | ||
| Kirsten Gillibrand | 50 | 89 | ||
| John Hickenlooper | 33 | 63 | ||
| Seth Moulton | 32 | 47 | ||
| John Delaney | 13 | 45 | ||
| Eric Swalwell | 59 | 44 | ||
| Bill de Blasio | 40 | 42 | ||
| Amy Klobuchar | 51 | 40 | ||
| Tim Ryan | 8 | 36 | ||
| Jay Inslee | 10 | 18 | ||
| Michael Bennet | 21 | 18 | ||
| Steve Bullock | 12 | 12 | ||
| Marianne Williamson | 4 | 11 | ||
| Julian Castro | 15 | 9 | ||
| Andrew Yang | 10 | 5 | ||
| Tulsi Gabbard | 7 | 1 | ||
| Mike Gravel | — | 0 | ||
| 3,467 | 3,547 | |||
The Hyde Amendment — a rule that bans federal funds from being used to pay for abortions — was one of the most commonly mentioned terms2 in last week’s coverage of Biden, appearing in about 11 percent of his clips. Newscasters were likely referring to his position reversal regarding the rule — he had confirmed his support of it just days before changing course and saying he opposed it.
From ABC News:
Biden flips on Hyde Amendment
The former vice president even loomed large in the coverage of his rivals this week. “Biden” was the most commonly mentioned word3 in clips mentioning Sen. Elizabeth Warren last week, appearing in about 20 percent of Warren’s clips. Biden also cropped up in about a third of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s clips.
Elsewhere, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who held town hall events on MSNBC and Fox News respectively, saw bumps in their coverage last week, while the number of clips mentioning Sen. Kamala Harris declined. Reps. Seth Moulton and Tim Ryan appeared in town halls on CNN last Sunday and saw increases in their cable news mentions, but Rep. Eric Swalwell, who also participated, got slightly less coverage. Former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel qualified as a major candidate last week according to FiveThirtyEight’s definition, but he received no mentions on the cable news networks we monitor.
Check out the data behind this series and check back each week for an update on which candidates are getting the most cable news mentions.