"Right Wing" Versus "Left Wing": Our Polarized Nation In Television News
Television news offers a glimpse into the polarized state of our national conversation. The timeline below shows mentions of the "Far Right" on television news over the past decade, showing MSNBC favored the term through late 2014. Today MSNBC continues to use it more than CNN, while Fox News uses it the least.
In contrast, Fox News mentions the "Far Left" far more than its peers, with CNN and MSNBC using it in similar amounts.
Combined, mentions of both the "Far Right" and "Far Left" show a strong stratification until mid-2016, with MSNBC the most heavy user of such terms, Fox News about half as much and CNN about a quarter as often. As of mid-2016 with the rise of Donald Trump, all three stations are far more similar, with CNN sharply increasing its usage of such words to meet MSNBC and Fox News mentioning them double the other two stations.
