In the aftermath of two police officers being ambushed and murdered while eating lunch at a restaurant in Trenton, Florida, last week, Fox News Channel has given substantially more attention to the tragic event than other national news outlets. In fact, various FNC shows have spent almost twice as much time on the story as ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, and PBS combined.
The short media attention span for the two slain officers also contrasts with the near daily fixation on the Philadelphia Starbucks which appears to have overreacted in having two black men arrested for loitering which did not even have a violent outcome.
After officers Noel Ramirez and Taylor Lindsay were attacked on Thursday afternoon, ABC's World News Tonight initially gave it almost one minute before following up Friday with a full report of nearly two minutes, as the same network's Good Morning America also covered it on both Friday and Saturday morning. The NBC Nightly News gave it 19 seconds on Thursday, but the only other mention on the network came early Friday morning buried at 3:34 a.m. Eastern on the Early Today show when it received just over one minute.
The CBS Evening News, CBS This Morning, and the earlier morning CBS Morning News each gave it a full report on Friday. Various CNN news shows spent a total of 9 minutes 17 seconds on Friday between the hours of 4:15 a.m. and 2:52 p.m. Eastern. MSNBC and PBS have not mentioned the story at all, but various FNC shows -- between Friday morning and Sunday morning -- have devoted more than 41 minutes. The networks ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, and PBS have only given the tragedy about 22 minutes and 13 seconds combined.
CNN's flagship morning show, New Day, notably only spent 32 seconds on the story at 6:30 a.m. Friday, but FNC's Fox and Friends show -- which runs in the same three-hour time slot -- has covered it each day since Friday, giving it a total of just over 17 minutes -- almost 32 times as much coverage as New Day.
Most recently, on Sunday morning, Fox and Friends gave attention to the Tunnel to Towers charity which helps take care of the families of first responders like police officers and fire fighters who are killed on duty, and plans to assist the families left behind by the two Florida officers.
And also of note, on Friday evening's The Story show on FNC, host Martha MacCallum recalled that 22 police officers have so far been killed on duty this year -- a higher rate than last year -- before speaking with a relative of one of the officers who is in mourning.
As for the Starbucks story, according to Nexis, CNN's New Day gave it attention for four consecutive days from April 16-19, and for a fifth day on April 22. On the broadcast evening newscasts, ABC and CBS both covered Starbucks every day between April 14-17, and CBS revisited it on the 19th. The NBC Nightly News covered the story four times, including April 15, 16, 17, and 19. All three broadcast morning newscasts were still giving it attention as of Friday, April 20.
