A usage of the construction "much of the + noun"

Question

Here is the sentence.

The President took a drubbing from much of the press, which had breathlessly reported that a deal was in the bag.

I don't know the exact meaning of the phrase "much of the press".

I guess maybe the President had too much pressure from the press, so they're making him weak.

So I refer to a dictionary and found the closest usage is:

If you do not see much of someone, you do not see them very often.

e.g. I don't see much of Tony nowadays...

But it seems not to match the context well. Could you tell me the usage of "much of the.."?

Answer 1

Actually your example sentence suggests that the President previously reported that the deal was "in the bag" (meaning that it was almost certain) which the press eagerly reported. However, in fact, it was not a "done deal", and so the press chastised the President for giving them false information.

In this example, "much of" simply means "a significant portion of". Other examples:

Although many people praise the book for its core ideas, much of it is tedious and repetitive exposition.

Much of the movie is ponderously slow, but this is only a set up for the frenetic action in the final act.

Susan forgot about dinner cooking in the oven, so much of the roast is now charcoal, but there are still some edible bites left.

As P.E. Dant mentions in his comment, "much of" is used with uncountable nouns. With countable nouns, use "most of".

Most of the potatoes are also burnt to a crisp, but there are one or two we might salvage.