One guess who the NYT wrote about most in the last two decades
The New York Times wrote about President Donald Trump 48,699 times between 2000 and 2024. That’s three times more than the paper mentioned his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, and nearly twice as many as former President Barack Obama.
The data comes from a new dashboard, Below the Fold, created by freelance journalist Ted Alcorn. The site provides unique insights into the paper and its coverage topics, offering a rare glimpse into the media industry and what the Times has prioritized over the last 20-plus years.
Dashboard insights
Unsurprisingly, Trump is the most-covered topic. That little piece of data shows how much the media and the U.S. population are attuned to the president and his actions.
Compared with Trump, Obama has been featured in about 25,000 articles. Biden is mentioned in even fewer, at around 16,000. The president closest to Trump’s coverage numbers, which are nearing 47,000, is former President George W. Bush, who is mentioned in just over 31,000 stories.
The drastic difference in coverage could stem from Trump’s unorthodox methods and presidencies. His frank, often controversial, comments and social media posts grab headlines in ways former presidents’ words did not.
Another theory: The Times’ focus on Trump could indicate it is a left-leaning publication. Its top three most covered topics are Trump, Bush and “Republican Party.”
Media and determining its bias
The dashboard will enable readers to parse the data and reach conclusions as they see fit. However, determining if a news organization leans a certain way takes more than quantifying its coverage.
The Below the Fold data doesn’t reflect whether a story is positive or negative. To get specific, one would have to look through every individual article to assess what sort of light these topics receive in their coverage. The new dashboard, however, is definitely a starting point.
What can be tracked, however? How coverage has shifted over the years. For example, coverage on China peaked around 2014 and has dropped off since, and India is undercovered per capita.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
