White House Wins Cable News Narrative War After Comey Hearing
There is little question that President Donald Trump’s potential obstruction of justice is a far bigger story than former FBI director James Comey leaking his memos on interactions with the president to the press.
But those were the two stories vying for dominance that emerged as both the White House and critics of the administration came around from Comey’s stunning testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday.
The president’s opponents harped on Comey’s comments that he felt Trump tried to derail the FBI investigation into former national security adviser Mike Flynn, as proof the president obstructed justice. As The New York Times notes, Comey’s description of his conversations with Trump were “unflattering” for the president and left it up to Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller to determine whether they amount to obstruction of justice.
Meanwhile, the White House charged into hyperdrive reprising a now familiar counterargument: the real story is the leaks. Marc Kasowitz, Trump’s personal attorney, accused Comey of improperly leaking “privileged communications” with the president to the press, and is reportedly seeking to take legal action against the former FBI chief. In an interview on Good Morning America, former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski also called for Comey to be prosecuted for leaking.
So which narrative is winning out? According to an analysis of references to both leaks and obstruction via news transcript website TVEyes.com, the White House appears to be besting the president’s opponents. It’s important to note that analyzing transcripts of cable news mentions is not an exact science, but it provides a strong indication of what is dominating coverage.
And a search of the terms “leak,” “leaks,” “leaker,” and “leaking” versus “obstruct” and “obstruction” revealed some notable results.
After the conclusion of Comey’s hearing around 1 p.m., through until the end of Thursday, June 8, Fox News had fairly even coverage of both the “leak” (114 mentions) and “obstruction” (112 mentions) narratives.
The next day, however, the “leak” coverage increased. From midnight to noon on Friday, June 9, the “leak” story had a whopping 149 mentions on Fox News, with “obstruction” receiving just 36 mentions.
Fox News parroting White House talking points is nothing new, but the “its the leaks!” narrative also appears to have won out on the FNC’s cable news rivals.
After Comey’s hearing on Thursday, “leaks” had 53 mentions on MSNBC while “obstruction” was mentioned 114 times. On Friday, the trend had reversed: mentions of “leaks” rose to 63, as mentions of “obstruction” plummeted to 57.
A similar swing occurred over at CNN: Thursday mentions of “leaks” were 76, and rose to 78 on Friday. Meanwhile, the network tallied the most mentions of “obstruction” on Thursday, at 131, dropping down to 58 on Friday.
The trend is clear: in the immediate aftermath of the Comey hearing, CNN and MSNBC dedicated most of their coverage to the question of obstruction, with leaks a secondary story. Then, on Friday, references to leaks surpassed those of obstruction. Fox News had even coverage of the two on Thursday, with leaks charging ahead throughout Friday.
Ultimately, no definitive conclusions have been reached regarding Comey’s leaks and Trump’s obstruction — in both cases, they stand merely accused by their opponents. Commentators are split on whether Comey directing his friend Daniel Richman to reveal the contents of his memos to reporters was ethical, or even legal. As for Trump, we’ll have to wait for Mueller’s investigation to determine whether his “hopes” amount to obstruction. But for now, at least when it comes to cable news, the White House is winning the narrative battle.
[image via screengrab]
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
