Donald Trump spent about a week “boycotting” Fox News but the “fair and balanced” network more than made it up to him in airtime. For the fifth month in a row, Trump got the most Fox News airtime of all the Republican candidates.
You may recall that Trump and Fox boycotted each other late last month for six days, when they became BFFs again.
Media Matters does the math on candidate appearances on Fox (so we don't have to). It turns out that Trump didn’t just spend more time on Fox, he got almost a whole program’s worth of more time:
Trump beat out every other candidate with 2 hours and 42 minutes -- almost a full 30 minutes more than the next closest contender (New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who clocked in with 2 hours and 16 minutes), and more than an hour more than the third place finisher (former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who managed 1 hour and 32 minutes of interview airtime for the month). Trump's airtime total was once again inflated thanks to the network re-airing his interviews in primetime -- a Hannity Trump campaign special that originally aired in August was broadcast again on Sunday, September 6.
If you divide Trump's 162 total minutes on Fox by three (the weeks in September he wasn't boycotting), that comes out to nearly an hour a week of air time for him.
Not surprisingly, the show that offered the most airtime to Republican candidates is also the one least likely to ask tough questions.
Overall, Hannity again far outpaced Fox's other shows for total candidate time. Sean Hannity's show devoted 3 hours and 32 minutes to the candidates in September, which brings it to a total of 16 hours and 43 minutes since May. The second place show, Fox and Friends has devoted less than half that time -- 7 hours and 57 minutes.
Media Matters has been keeping tabs on candidates on Fox since May 1. Trump has gotten the most time (13 hours and 3 minutes) and the most appearances (67) since then.
Trump caricature by DonkeyHotey.
Probably consulting a doctor about that strange rash now.