Life

Anti-trans violence got just 43 minutes of coverage on TV news networks in 2021

By Conor Clark

20th May 2022

Henry Mills

TV news networks spent a total of 43 minutes covering transphobic violence in 2021, despite the year being the deadliest on record.

At least 57 trans or gender non-confirming people were killed in America last year, according to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).

This number is likely to be higher as stories of these deaths are often misreported or unreported entirely.

With 44 killings, 2020 was the most violent year on record until 2021, an increase from the 25 and 22 recorded in 2019 and 2018, respectively.

However, despite yet another surge in anti-trans violence, cable TV news spent just 43 minutes covering it last year, a report from Media Matters has revealed.

This was down from just 54 minutes of coverage in 2020.

Those who did cover anti-trans violence rarely included a trans person as a guest, with only seven of the 19 segments on the topic doing so.

The name of the trans victim was only mentioned in four of these, with CBS Mornings reporter Jamie Yuccas deadnaming Nikki Kuhnhausen, a 17-year-old trans girl who was killed.

Almost one-third of the coverage came during Pride Month in June at a collective total of 13 minutes.

MSNBC had more coverage than all other networks combined, with 29 minutes of coverage across nine segments.

On the contrary, Fox News covered it for two minutes in two segments – though from 20 January (the day President Joe Biden took office) to 18 March, it ran 86 segments “primarily fearmongering about trans athletes and lying about best practice health care for trans youth.”

The report from Media Matters can be read in full by clicking here.