The documentary “Melania: Twenty Days to History” debuted in theaters across North America last weekend. The film inspired cheers and criticism from across the political spectrum leading up to and following the film’s release. Our analysts rated media coverage in our Topic of the Week.

The most balanced and factful reporting from our content set came from articles by BBC and NBC News. Both were found to be a “mix of fact reporting and analysis” with a “middle/balanced” bias.

The article on the NBC News website reports on the box office success of the film. The documentary brought in $7 million in its opening weekend, “the strongest start for a nonmusic documentary in over a decade, according to box office analysts.” The article explains how the response was much better than was expected, according to reaction prior to the film release. 

The BBC article takes a different focus, describing the content of the film. This is evident in the headline: “What we learned – and didn’t – from the Melania documentary.” Analysts noted that the author summarizes the documentary but does not review it, which would add an element of opinion. The article also describes the controversy that surrounded the film, including its funding by Amazon, which paid $40 million for the rights to the film and another $35 million to publicize it.

Articles from USA Today and the Fox News website received identical reliability scores in the category of “opinion”; however, the viewpoints expressed in the stories came from the opposite sides of the political spectrum.

The USA Today article, penned by columnist Rex Huppke, states its premise in the headline: “Mocking Melania Trump’s documentary is an act of patriotism.” Huppke writes that no one should spend money on “whatever bloviating bilge Amazon is foisting on the American public.” He questions why anyone would care about a movie about Melania, someone who he says has been “largely invisible” during both of Trump’s presidencies and who polls consistently as the least popular first lady. He predicts that the film will be an “epic box office flop” but says that even if it isn’t (and it wasn’t), “we have a patriotic duty to make fun of it and the film’s subject” because Melania is “complicit in everything Donald Trump has done.” Analysts found that the article had a “strong left” bias.

The Fox News article, written by columnist David Marcus, expresses an opposite opinion about the first lady. The headline reads: “Why Melania and her fans deserve her silver screen star turn.” Marcus states that if Melania was married to a Democrat president, “she would be the greatest fashion and style icon since Jackie Kennedy.” Instead, he writes, she’s been given the “cold shoulder.” Marcus refers to the USA Today article and says, “People need or want this Melania documentary because these leftists blacklist her from everything else.” He flatters both Melania and President Trump and says, “They deserve this star turn, and if it makes a bunch of whiny liberals upset, then that’s just the tiara on top.” The column received a bias rating of “hyper-partisan right.”

Both videos rated by our team were found to be “selective or incomplete/unfair persuasion.” The video from the Occupy Democrats YouTube channel proclaims, “Trump RAGES As The WORLD LAUGHS At MELANIA’S MOVIE FLOP.” The video is a compilation of other people mocking the film, including comedian Jimmy Kimmel, Jen Psaki of MS NOW and other content creators. They express glee that ticket sales are low and predict that “Felon 47” Trump will be “rage posting” if the film is not a success. Because the commentary mocks and makes predictions about the film before it’s even released in theaters, analysts found the video to be “unfair persuasion” with a “strong left” bias.

The video from the JosiahRises YouTube channel was filmed after the documentary was released in theaters, and it applauds the film’s “massive, massive success”: “Hollywood LOSE THEIR MINDS After Melania Trump DESTROYS Them In SHOCKING TWIST!” The video host, Josiah Swanson, says that “the critics and the Hollywood establishment is just a bunch of woke leftist hacks” but “reality has once again debunked these serial liars.” He says that “leftists are completely melting down” because of the film’s high box office returns. Because of the amount of mocking sarcasm included in this video, analysts gave it a bias rating of “hyper-partisan right.”   

New Topics of the Week are posted on the website each Monday. Read the articles and watch the videos yourself, then come back on Wednesday to compare your scores with those of our analysts. Learn more here.