Despite the fact that Libertarian Gary Johnson is polling higher than any third-party candidate in the last 20 years, he has little chance of gaining enough support to make it into the upcoming presidential debates because he isn’t receiving any coverage on the major news networks.
Johnson is currently averaging around 8 percent, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average. A third-party candidate hasn’t had numbers this high since Ross Perot ran in 1996.
However, according to the Media Research Center, Johnson has received a mere 11 seconds of airtime on the evening newscasts between the three major news networks: ABC, CBS, and NBC.
MRC analyzed all campaign stories on the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening newscasts from January 1 through August 31 and concluded “the broadcast network evening newscasts are essentially blacking out the existence of alternatives to Clinton and Trump — a potentially fatal blow to candidates who are required to average 15 percent support to qualify for the upcoming presidential debates.”
Unsurprisingly, Trump has received the most media coverage by far (1,773 minutes), while Clinton has received 1,020 minutes. Meanwhile, despite the unpopularity of both major-party candidates, the third-party candidates have received almost no coverage. Independent candidate Evan McMullin has received the most coverage at 32 seconds, while Gary Johnson has gotten 11 seconds (NBC News threw in a single sentence about his nomination), and the Green Party’s Jill Stein got just one brief 3-second mention that didn’t even include her name.
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04.28.2024