Research/Study Research/Study

CNN and MSNBC far outpaced Fox News with coverage of Nikki Haley's presidential announcement

Written by Tyler Monroe

Research contributions from Rob Savillo

Published

  • CNN and MSNBC aired hours more coverage of Nikki Haley’s presidential announcement than Fox News. 

    Following the former Trump administration official’s Tuesday announcement via social media, CNN dedicated 4 hours and 7 minutes of coverage over 48 segments to the launch of Haley’s campaign, while MSNBC dedicated 3 hours and 11 minutes over 35 segments. Fox News dedicated significantly less coverage, with 1 hour and 41 minutes of coverage over 18 segments given to Haley’s announcement. All three networks showed her opening campaign speech in its entirety, with CNN breaking to special programming to give feedback to the kickoff speech.

    Coverage of Nikki Haley's campaign announcement on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC

    Despite the announcement receiving more coverage from CNN and MSNBC, Haley so far has chosen not to appear on those networks, instead giving two interviews to Fox News in the wake of her announcement, according to Media Matters internal database. The former South Carolina governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who once vowed not to run against former President Donald Trump, has received much more attention from the mainstream press than from right-wing media, where many declared her campaign doomed before it even began.

  • Methodology

  • Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC for the term “Haley,” including misspellings, from February 14, 2023, when Haley officially announced her candidacy, through February 15, 2023.

    We timed segments, which we defined as instances when Nikki Haley was the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of Haley. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed Haley with one another.

    We also timed mentions, which we defined as instances when a single speaker in a multitopic segment mentioned Haley without another speaker engaging with the comment, and teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about Haley scheduled to air later in the broadcast.

    We rounded all times to the nearest minute.