Do the most over-represented people in America need more representation?

One really obvious problem with the Licht/Baquet “the only problem with 2016 election coverage was that we didn’t do enough stories about how Trump supporters support Trump” theory is that Trump supporters are as over-represented in media coverage as they are in electoral institutions:

The arguments from Licht and Cooper are also worth considering, too, because they overstate the purported need. Yes, tens of millions of Americans support Trump. But they are neither a quiet, unexamined segment of the population nor half of it.

That first point is easily demonstrated. Every time there’s a presidential election, cable news channels like CNN and its competitors spend some time talking about the candidates’ supporters.

You can see that below: In 2012, as Mitt Romney was challenging President Barack Obama, CNN mentioned his supporters in nearly 1,000 15-second blocks. In 2016, as Hillary Clinton was seeking the presidency, her supporters were mentioned in more than 3,800 blocks of airtime. The pattern on the other major cable-news channels was similar.

You’ll notice that Trump and his supporters aren’t included above. That’s because he breaks the scale.

CNN has collectively mentioned the supporters of Obama, Romney, Clinton and President Biden about 10,000 times since January 2010. It has mentioned Trump’s supporters more than 22,000 times. The pattern is similar on the other cable-news channels: Mentions of Trump supporters far exceed the other candidates, combined. On MSNBC, as on CNN, it’s a 2 to 1 ratio.

Counterpoint: four Trump voters at this diner in Macomb County say that nobody has ever paid any attention to Trump voters.