Clinton is a reasonable and thoughtful politician and former diplomat, so her “deplorables” comment was seen by our yellow press as “man bites dog.” It was unexpected. Trump, on the other hand, is a sadistic fascist whose call for the extermination of his political opponents could reasonably be expected: “dog bites man.”
The 2016 data proves the thesis, as Media Matters noted: “Media Matters reviewed the nationally syndicated broadcast news shows—ABC’s Good Morning America, World News Tonight, and This Week; CBS’ This Morning, Mornings, Evening News, and Face the Nation; and NBC’s Today, Nightly News, and Meet the Press—in the first week after each remark.” Result? They found that those programs aired 54 minutes of coverage of Clinton’s “deplorables” comment but just three minutes regarding Trump’s “vermin” remark.
Cable news (CNN, Fox “News,” and MSNBC) wasn’t much different. On CNN, there were 553 mentions of “deplorables” compared to 70 for “vermin.” On Fox News, the count was 513 to only nine. Even on MSNBC, it was 596 to 112.
