TV Networks Give 50x More Air Time to Khizr Khan than Pat Smith

Network newscasts devoted 50 times more air-time to Khizr Khan, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention about his son who was killed in combat while in Iraq, than to Pat Smith, who spoke at the Republican National Convention about her son who died in Benghazi.

According to the Media Research Center, from July 19 to Aug. 1, ABC, CBS, and NBC devoted only one minute and 10 seconds to covering Smith.

However, the same networks managed to spend 55 minutes and 13 seconds covering Khan.

The Media Research Center report details the coverage breakdown per network:

Coverage of Pat Smith:
ABC: 13 seconds
CBS: 3 seconds
NBC: 54 seconds
TOTAL: 1 minute, 10 seconds

Coverage of Khizir Khan:
ABC: 14 minutes, 21 seconds
CBS: 9 minutes, 13 seconds
NBC: 31 minutes, 39 seconds
TOTAL: 55 minutes, 13 seconds

“This is a textbook case of bias-by-agenda: One of these stories (the Khan story) matched the Democratic agenda, and the partisan media couldn’t push it hard enough. The other (the Smith story) reflected poorly on the Democratic nominee, so it was barely mentioned,” writes Media Research Center’s Geoffrey Dickens.