On Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden ended his flirtation with a bid for the 2016 Democratic nomination, but only after an extended period in which the broadcast networks gave his non-candidacy more airtime than that of any declared Republican or Democratic candidate other than frontrunners Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
From August 1, when the networks began covering the possibility of a Biden candidacy, through October 20, the ABC, CBS and NBC evening news broadcasts devoted 98 minutes of airtime to the possibility of a Biden-for-President campaign.
That’s less than the 242 minutes of coverage given to Trump during this period, or the 195 minutes spent on Clinton’s campaign, but much more than the airtime devoted to major declared candidates such as Ben Carson, Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, Bernie Sanders and Marco Rubio. (See chart.)
No other candidates received even ten minutes of evening news airtime during this period, as the networks virtually ignored top-tier GOP candidates Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, John Kasich and Ted Cruz.
And not even the October 13 Democratic debate could spur the evening newscasts to provide more than a passing mention to also-rans Martin O’Malley, Lincoln Chafee and Jim Webb. Indeed, even Webb’s departure from the race was noted with just a ten-second item on CBS last night; both ABC and NBC skipped the news, but all three broadcasts ran full items on Biden.
