The Fox Primary By the Numbers, October 3-9

Fox jumped on board the “Cain Train” this week, increasing the airtime it's giving to Herman Cain. The former Godfather's Pizza CEO's domination of the Murdoch media spread across more than one Fox network and included a 14-minute-long appearance on Fox Business' Imus In The Morning.

Cain appeared on Fox about three times as often as the next closest candidate.

So who's winning the Fox Primary? Each week at Media Matters, we watch the interviews, crunch the numbers, and tell you what Fox is up to in the presidential campaign.

Last Week's Results


Total time: 2 hours and 48 minutes; Total appearances: 24

Most Total Airtime on Fox: Herman Cain (1 hour and 3 minutes)

Most Total Appearances: Herman Cain (8 appearances)

Fox Show with the Most Total Candidate Airtime: Fox and Friends (19 minutes)

Fox Show with the Most Candidate Appearances: America Live (4 appearances)

Longest Candidate Interview: Imus in the Morning (14 minutes with Herman Cain)

Softball Question(s) of the Week: From the October 4 episode of Fox and Friends, co-host Steve Doocy asked Herman Cain the following:

DOOCY: When you were in the green room, I gave you the news that you hadn't heard yet. There's a brand new Washington Post/ABC poll out that shows, look at this, you're now in second place. Rick Perry has - ties - you at sixteen percent, Mitt Romney at twenty-five. Perry's lost about half of his support, and it looks like, sir, it's gone to you?

(A table of the October 3 - October 9 data is available here.)

The Numbers Since June 1


Total time: 46 hours and 27 minutes; Total appearances: 400

Most Total Airtime on Fox since June 1: Herman Cain (6 hours and 28 minutes)

Most Total Appearances since June 1: John Bolton (67 appearances)

Fox Show with the Most Total Candidate Airtime Since June 1: On the Record with Greta Van Susteren (7 hours and 30 minutes)

Fox Show with the Most Candidate Appearances since June 1: On the Record with Greta Van Susteren (59 appearances)

Longest Candidate Interview since June 1: Stossel (40 minutes with Gary Johnson)

(A table of all the data since June 1 is available here.)

Previous Fox Primary Reports

June 1 - 5
June 6 - 12
June 13 - 19
June 20 - 26
June 27 - July 4
July 5 - 10
July 11 - 17
July 18 - 24
July 25 - 31
August 1 - 7
August 8 - 14
August 15 - 21
August 22 - 28

August 29 - September 4
September 5 - 11
September 12 - 18
September 19 - 25
September 26 - October 2

Methodology

Media Matters searched the Nexis database for all guest appearances on Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, and Fox News Sunday for the 12 declared and potential presidential candidates in question: Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Jon Huntsman, Gary Johnson, Sarah Palin, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Buddy Roemer, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum.

For programs where a transcript was unavailable, Media Matters reviewed the raw video.

Changes to the reports

Media Matters stopped including Palin in the data after her decision not to run was made on October 5. Giuliani announced on October 11 that he would not run, so he will not be included in future reports.

Media Matters added McCotter to the data beginning on June 20 and Roemer beginning on July 21. We stopped including McCotter on September 22; he dropped out of the race that day.

We stopped including Pawlenty and Trump in the data beginning on August 14; Pawlenty dropped out of the race on that date. And while Trump stated that he would no longer seek the Republican nomination but may instead run as an independent (on June 1, the beginning of this report), we decided to drop him from the data on this date.

We stopped including Bolton in the data beginning on September 6; Bolton decided not to run on this date.