ABC, CBS and NBC News coverage of the presidential race between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris was the most “deformed in history”, a new study released a week before the election found.

Analysis from Media Research Center (MRC) published Monday, found that Harris received 78 percent positive coverage on the evening news in July, compared to Trump, who was the subject of 85 percent negative coverage on the same networks.

“The coverage gap between the two candidates is much larger than in 2016, when both Trump and then-challenger Hillary Clinton received mostly negative coverage (91% negative for Trump, compared to 79% negative for Clinton)”, according to MRC analysts. .

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 27: Republican presidential candidate former US President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden on October 27, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

The gap between coverage of Trump and Harris is even greater than in 2020, “when Joe Biden was treated with 66% positive coverage, compared to 92% negative coverage for Trump,” the study said.

MRC reported that ABC, CBS and NBC spent more than 200 minutes of air time, most of it negative, discussing the controversies surrounding Trump while glossing over or, in many cases, completely ignoring the controversies surrounding by Harris – such as plagiarism and related allegations. her husband, Doug Emhoff.

“Instead, Harris coverage was peppered with enthusiastic quotes from pro-Harris voters, creating a positive ‘vibe’ for the Democrat, even as network reporters criticized Trump themselves,” MRC writes.

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Analysts analyzed more than 600 segments about the presidential race that aired on ABC, CBS or NBC from the day President Biden suspended his candidacy in late July through Oct. 25.

After weeks of glowing coverage of Harris as the Democratic nominee, the three networks seemed to change their tune following the Harris-Trump debate in September, MRC analysts found.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris speaks during a service at Christian Compassion Church, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

“The networks shifted attention away from Harris, spending far more airtime targeting Trump,” the report said.

“From the time Harris entered the race from July 21 to September 10, he received 353 minutes of evening news coverage, virtually identical to the 355 minutes Trump was given during the same period. Since then, however, TV has focused almost twice as much. attention on Trump as Harris: 398 minutes for the former president, compared to just 230 minutes for the vice president,” the study found.

“The additional airtime for Trump was not meant as a gift. Instead, it reflected the networks’ intense focus on the Trump controversies, providing opportunities for negative news coverage,” according to the MRC.

About 31 percent of the 753 minutes of evening news coverage with Trump since July 21 highlighted his personal controversies, the study found. “This compares to barely five percent of Harris’ airtime (28 minutes, out of a total of 583 minutes of coverage) spent on similar topics.

The networks repeatedly cited the January 6 date and Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was rigged, labeling him a “danger to democracy,” MRC reported.

Comparatively, “Harris faced no such attack. Over fourteen weeks, viewers of the evening news have heard 5 minutes and 22 seconds of criticism of the GOP for being too liberal, barely a sixth of the air time spent claiming that Trump is a “fascist.” None of that coverage included criticism of Harris, either from network reporters or nonpartisan sources,” MRC analysts found.

“Add it all up, and the media coverage of the past three months is more unbalanced than that of any presidential election in the modern media era,” the report said.

“So if Donald Trump wins back the White House next week, the media’s campaign against him will have accomplished nothing but further erode his own reputation.”

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The MRC findings come shortly after a The Gallup study revealed this trust remains both historically and consistently low in the media. Only 31 percent of those surveyed expressed a “satisfaction” or a “good amount” of trust in the media to report the news properly.

“For the third year in a row, more US adults don’t trust the media at all (36%) than trust it a lot or fairly. Another 33% of Americans express “not very much” confidence,” Gallup senior editor Megan Brenan wrote.

ABC, CBS and NBC News did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News’ Alexander Hall contributed to this report.