Broadcast Networks Shield Democrats from Shutdown Blame

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.

For example, in an October 30 report on NBC Nightly News, senior correspondent Tom Costello noted: “Delta and United [Airlines] also urged Congress to pass a clean resolution, known as a CR, to end the shutdown.”

But at no point did Costello clarify that these two airlines just had effectively endorsed the efforts of Congressional Republicans, encouraging Senate Democrats to settle for a continuing resolution. All viewers heard was that they were “urging Congress,” giving the false impression that the continuing resolution faced bipartisan opposition.

(The following morning on Today, Costello did note that the airlines had endorsed the GOP position, but that detail never made it into an evening newscast).

Such murky language was also commonplace on ABC World News Tonight. On October 26, correspondent Alex Presha remarked ambiguously that “a vote to fund the government has failed in the Senate 12 times,” without mentioning the partisan breakdown of those unsuccessful votes.

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