A Harvard study of the 2016 presidential primary shows that the mainstream media focused excessively on the horse race – tactics and polls – rather than issues and leadership qualities. Trump received more coverage than warranted owing to his off-the-wall comments. (The Poynter Institute, July 11, 2016, by James Warren)
The biases in coverage obscured the democratic primary and prevented discussion of deeper issues behind the polling results. Trump benefited by the bias receiving 34 percent of media coverage while his nearest opponent, Jeb Bush, got 18 percent. (FiveThirtyEight, July 11, 2016, by Farai Chideya)