We also examined the top one- or two-word keywords in the 15-second clips that mentioned “Ukraine” to better understand the substance of each network’s media coverage. And as you can see in the table below, the narratives were pretty different — CNN’s coverage was much more likely to focus on the breaking news aspect of the story (the phrase “breaking news” was actually the third most likely to be used by CNN in conjunction with “Ukraine” versus other networks). Fox News focused more on “Hillary Clinton” and “Hunter Biden,” while MSNBC focused heavily on “Donald Trump.”
Fox News has discussed Hunter Biden’s ties to a gas company in Ukraine — as well his ties to China — more than the other outlets. It frequently mentioned “Hillary Clinton,” and the idea that she, too, might have shadowy connections to Ukraine. Fox also used the phrase “quid pro quo” more often than the other networks, with most coverage pointing out that Trump did not explicitly ask for a “quid pro quo” or promise Zelensky foreign assistance for Ukrainian cooperation.
Meanwhile, MSNBC has centered its media narrative on Trump and the possibility of presidential wrongdoing. It repeatedly described Trump’s request to Zelensky to investigate Biden as “digging up dirt.”1 In total, the phrase was used 38 different times on MSNBC, 27 times on CNN and just seven times on Fox News. MSNBC also emphasized the role of Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, more than the other networks, often referring to him by his role rather than his name.
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