The tone of cable news coverage during Inauguration Day depended entirely on who you voted for. Anchors at CNN and MSNBC offered dismal and sarcastic opinions about President Trump’s four-year term while reporters at Fox News, One America News Network (OANN) and Newsmax offered a less critical analysis of the 45th President.
OANN, the nation’s most friendly Trump network, covered the president’s final White House goodbye with pre-taped video packages and in-depth analysis. The network also produced a 48-minute video for its website called “Trump – Legacy of a Patriot.”
Fox News Described Trump as a hard-working man while host Dana Perino repeatedly and delicately referred to him as a “disruptor.” Anchor Martha MacCallum claimed Trump has “worked hard in the past 48 hours to finish this on a more gracious note.”
CNN sent reporter Jim Acosta to cover Trump’s departure at Joint Base Andrews. Acosta, who worked in the White House for the last four years and had several run-ins with Trump, called him an “autocrat” as his plane was headed towards Florida.
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer called the turn-out for Trump’s farewell “pathetic” piggybacking off of the seeming disgust that Acosta was reporting with.
“He looks small,” CNN anchor Dana Bash opined as the defeated 45th president and his unpopular first lady, Melania, made their way across the South Lawn to Marine One. “He just looks like a small man.”
Coverage of President Joe Biden’s big day came with little to no scrutiny on the left-leaning networks. CNN and MSNBC seemed to ignore the fact that Biden signed 17 executive orders erasing key aspects of Donald Trump’s presidency.