STUDY: Mainstream Media Dedicated 2,284 Minutes To Russian Collusion Hoax

Throughout all two years of Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump-Russia collusion, the mainstream media wasted a combined total of approximately 2,284 minutes of coverage, nearly two full days in a human being’s life.

According to a thorough study at Newsbusters, from President Trump’s inauguration all the way to the last hours on the day before Robert Mueller sent his report to Attorney General William Barr, the media spent an average of three minutes a night for 791 days reporting on whether or not the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.

“From January 20, 2017 (Inauguration Day) through March 21, 2019 (the last night before special counsel Robert Mueller sent his report to the Attorney General), the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts produced a combined 2,284 minutes of ‘collusion’ coverage, most of it (1,909 minutes) following Mueller’s appointment on May 17, 2017,” reports Newsbusters. “That’s an average of roughly three minutes a night, every night, for an astonishing 791 days.”

As noted by Newsbusters, the media will typically only dedicate that amount of reporting time on a major war or a presidential election. Virtually all of Trump’s presidency has been overshadowed by the Mueller investigation, with every single one of his accomplishments, including the economy and tax reform, being relegated to second class status. Worse still, the coverage has been overwhelmingly (and increasingly) negative – a full 92%.

“From January 1 through March 21 of this year, the spin of Trump coverage on the evening newscasts has been 92% negative vs. just eight percent positive — even worse than the 90% negative coverage we calculated in 2017 and 2018,” reports Newsbusters.

Keep in mind, the media’s dedication to covering the Russian collusion story ad nauseam was in spite of the fact that the American public largely did not care. In fact, according to several midterm exit polls conducted by various outlets in November of last year, Russian collusion was the least of voters’ top priorities. From The Daily Wire’s Joseph Curl:

As part of the 2018 midterm elections on Tuesday, several news organizations conducted exit polls, asking voters why they voted as they did and what issues they cared about most. Some 41% of voters said health care was their top issue, followed by 23% favoring immigration reform, 21% citing the economy and 11% saying gun policy, CNN reported.

That’s 96%. After that, more than a dozen issues pulled 1%. But Russia/collusion wasn’t even one of those! The amount voters cared about alleged collusion was literally immeasurable.

The CNN poll was able to measure how voters feel about the probe being run by special counsel Robert Mueller. A majority (54%) viewed the Russia investigation as “politically motivated.” Just 41% disagreed. And a plurality (46%) disapproved of Mueller’s handling of it, while 42% approved.

In other recent polls, NBC News found only 42% of voters approve of Mueller’s handling, while 45% disapprove. What’s more, only 61% of Democrats approve of Mueller. And a CBS News poll found that 53% think the Russia investigation is politically motivated, with only 44% saying it is justified.

Furthermore, throughout all this time, the drumbeat among mainstream leftists was that Mueller would be Trump’s reckoning, the deus ex machina who would swoop in from the skies above to expose the Manchurian candidate in our midst. Take a look at this Stephen Colbert sketch in which a Christmas choir sings about Mueller’s indictment of Trump officials like gifts handed down from the Almighty:

None of them are singing the same tune now, of course. In fact, some of Robert Mueller’s biggest supporters have openly turned on him for failing to produce a report that fingered Trump as a Russian stooge. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) told ABC’s “This Week” that Mueller made a mistake by accepting written testimony from Trump and not interviewing him under oath.

“It was a mistake to rely on written responses by the president,” Schiff said. “That’s generally more what the lawyer has to say than what the individual has to say.”

MSNBC host Chris Matthews echoed Schiff’s sentiments, asserting that Mueller was too incompetent to conduct the investigation. “Maybe he missed the boat here,” Matthews said of Mueller. “Why was there never an interrogation of this president? We were told for weeks by experts, ‘You cannot deal with an obstruction-of-justice charge or investigation without getting the motive.’ … How could they let Trump off the hook?”

Now that the Mueller investigation has concluded, the media will most likely focus all of its attention on the 2020 campaign.