David Muir’s ABC News Report Was 100% Positive on Harris, 93% Negative on Trump Ahead of Debate: Study

Conservatives say a recent poll showing that Vice President Kamala Harris received significantly more positive coverage on ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” than former President Trump should have been a clear indication that Tuesday night’s debate would be hostile territory.

ABC News has come under fire after Muir and co-moderator Linsey Davis repeatedly fact-checked Trump and failed to correct Harris once. The ABC moderators have also been urged to issue a correction on their abortion coverage and were reprimanded for giving Harris a pass on her explanation of recent policy changes.

Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt wrote that “Muir and Davis’s journalistic reputations are most scarred by the fiasco,” but that “the damage will extend to both the ABC and Disney brands” because the moderators failed to ask Harris more critical questions.

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ABC Presidential Debate co-moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis. (ABC News)

Brent Bozell, founder of the Media Research Center, said on “The Brent Bozell Show” podcast that Harris had a clear advantage that should have been obvious.

“Whoever (Trump) recommended that we have that debate on ABC should be fired. It was about the worst decision that could have been made,” Bozell said Wednesday when discussing what he sees as the Disney network’s bias.

The debate wasn’t the first time ABC News has been accused of favoring Democrats over Trump or portraying the GOP candidate in a negative light. The network’s daytime chatfest “The View,” which falls under the umbrella of ABC’s news division, has been openly anti-Trump for years and called on Chelsea Clinton to host on Thursday. The show’s hosts raved about the debate, with Whoopi Goldberg calling it a “booty whooping.”

ABC’s flagship late-night show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” has also frequently been critical of Trump, booking prominent anti-Trump figures Jane Fonda and George Conway as guests following the network’s coverage of the debate. Kimmel even helped organize a fundraiser for Biden when he was the nominee earlier this year.

As for the debate moderators, Davis appeared to link Trump to the Ku Klux Klan. During ABC’s coverage of the Democratic National Convention, he noted that the former president would be appearing in the same Michigan city where the KKK had held a protest earlier this year.

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Former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris faced off in ABC’s presidential debate on Tuesday. (Screenshot: Fox News simulcast of ABC News Presidential Debate)

As for Muir, the conservative Media Research Center found before the debate that his program, “World News Tonight,” was “more positive toward Harris and most hostile toward Trump” compared to NBC and CBS’s evening newscasts.

Bozell’s MRC reviewed 100 campaign stories from ABC’s “World News Tonight” that aired from July 21, when Harris declared her candidacy, through Sept. 6.

“Our analysts found 25 clearly positive statements about Harris from reporters, anchors, voters or other nonpartisan sources, with zero negative statements — none. That amounts to a gravity-defying 100% positive spin score for the vice president,” wrote Rich Noyes, editor of MRC NewsBusters.

“On Trump, our analysts found only five clearly positive comments, compared to 66 negative statements, for a dismal 7 percent positive — 93 percent negative — spin score,” Noyes continued. “In the same weeks, both ‘CBS Evening News’ and ‘NBC Nightly News’ also delivered very positive coverage of Harris, and mostly negative coverage of Trump, but not as extreme as we found with ABC’s ‘World News Tonight.'”

Notes explained that the MRC’s measure of good versus bad press omits partisan comments, “as well as ‘horse race’ judgments about the candidates’ poll numbers and prospects.” The MRC added that “ABC’s reporters and anchors criticized Trump himself, or aired negative comments from nonpartisan sources to put a very negative spin on coverage of the former president.”

MRC researchers also pointed to “other ways ABC’s flagship news program supported the Democratic candidate” ahead of the presidential debate.

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The MRC wrote that “World News Tonight” failed to use the word “liberal” to describe Harris, failed to speak to voters who oppose Harris and regularly promoted Trump controversies while “hiding” negative news about Harris.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America also sent a letter to ABC News President Almin Karamehmedovic, along with Muir and Davis, urging the network to issue a correction about a “100% false” abortion claim made during the debate.

Trump was referencing infamous comments made by former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam in 2019, but was promptly “fact-checked” by Davis. At the time, Northam suggested that in rare cases of third-trimester abortions the baby could be born alive and that there would then be “a conversation between the doctors and the mother” about what should be done.

“There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born,” Davis responded sternly to Trump during the debate.

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Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America says ABC host was “incorrect” and needs to correct the facts.

“This is 100% false. Her statement tragically ignores the reality of babies who survive botched, late-term abortions but are denied basic medical care and are left to fend for themselves,” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America Chair Marjorie Dannenfelser wrote in a letter to ABC executives.

ABC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, Dana Walden, a senior Disney executive whose portfolio includes ABC News, is one of Harris’ “extraordinary friends,” according to a report in The New York Times. Walden and Harris have known each other since 1994, while their husbands, Matt Walden and Doug Emhoff, have known each other since the 1980s.

ABC told the New York Times that Walden, who is Disney’s top television executive, has no influence over editorial decisions. She has donated to dozens of Democrats and has contributed to Harris’ political campaigns since at least 2003.

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Kendall Tietz of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.