Media Matters searched our internal database for all guest segments that at least mentioned the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, or the Supreme Court from September 18, when Ginsburg died, through September 29, 2020. The database includes all original cable news programming on CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC from 6 a.m. to midnight, Monday through Friday.
After we reviewed each segment for whether any participant mentioned Ginsburg’s death, Barrett’s nomination, or the Supreme Court, we recorded each segment participant. We counted each participant once per segment in which they appeared.
We coded each segment participant’s gender and race or ethnicity. We based the individual’s gender on their self-identification as either “male” or “female”; no participants in this study publicly identified as nonbinary. We based the individual’s race or ethnicity on their self-identification or on publicly available biographical information, and we used categories as defined by the U.S. Census with the addition of “Middle Eastern” as defined by the U.S. State Department. Not all percentages add up to 100 due to some segment participants identifying with more than one race or ethnicity.
We coded segment participants as “white” if they self-identify as white or are of European descent, as “Black” if they self-identify as African American or Black or are of African descent, as “Latinx/Hispanic” if they self-identify as Latino/Latina or Hispanic or are of Spanish/Latin American descent, as “Asian American/Pacific Islander” if they self-identify as Asian-American or Pacific Islander or are of Asian descent or Pacific Island descent, and as “Middle Eastern” if they self-identify as Middle Eastern or are of Middle Eastern descent.