Only 1 topic was more talked about on the evening news last year than Donald Trump


Donald Trump isn't always a winner; last year, he was only the second most talked about topic on evening newscasts, according to news analyst Andrew Tyndall. After analyzing broadcasts by ABC, NBC, and CBS News, Tyndall found that the stations spent a total of 327 minutes covering Trump — and 377 minutes covering "winter storms."
No need for Trump to bash winter storms for beating him to the No. 1 spot, however; according to Tyndall, ABC's evening news broadcast "produced almost as much Trump coverage last year as it did for the Ebola panic in 2014." That's a lot of Trump.
Other top stories of 2015 included the San Bernardino shooting, covered for 237 minutes, and ISIS, covered for 220. Hillary Clinton's campaign was talked about for a mere 121 minutes by comparison. But still, that's not too shabby: To put it in context, in 2012, during the general election, President Obama only earned 157 minutes total of airtime.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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