Morning Broadcast Nets Ignore Terrible Economic News

Americans were shocked to discover that the economy contracted unexpectedly in the first quarter. This story was ignored by ABC, CBS, and NBC Morning News Shows.

A report by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), released at 8:30 am, revealed that U.S. GDP fell at an annual rate of 1.4% in the quarter. Bloomberg News reported that the terrible news followed a “6.9% pace of growth at the end of 2021.” The median forecast for economists surveyed by Bloomberg was a 1 percent increase, meaning that expectations were off by a sizable 2.4 percentage points. 

Janney Chief Fixed Income Strategist Guy LeBas summed up the significance: “Nasty miss.” ABC’s Good Morning America (GMA), CBS Mornings, NBC’s Today and NBC’s Today’s Third HourThe BEA reported on April 28th broadcasts was completely ignored by the media.

The networks had time to cover meaningless material for hundreds of seconds, which is insulting considering the impact of news on the economic health. The U.S. is also struggling amid a plague of 40-year high inflation that is causing prices to skyrocket and pounding Americans’ wallets.

Coverage on CBS MorningsIt was, perhaps, the most absurd. Rather than reporting the GDP contraction news, the network spent a whopping 560 seconds on actress Sutton Foster’s role in the Broadway musical, “The Music Man.” Co-host Gayle King said the quiet part out loud about how long the interview was: “We were supposed to end this interview a minute and thirty seconds ago, but we didn’t want to stop talking to you.” Maybe the network kept talking to Foster because it was trying to avoid the bad economic news?

NBC’s TodayUsed 330 seconds of airtime for promotion of the performers from the musical comedy Girls5eva and co-host Hoda Kotb’s fangirl obsession with their song, “Tiny Butts Forever.”

NBC’s Today’s Third Hour kicked off its coverage, in part, by spending 89 seconds debating which vintage board game token to bring back to next year’s version of Monopoly. Co-hosts were available for viewers. Al Roker attempting to wear the “thimble” token like a dunce hat. A 1.4 percent contraction in GDP was not covered by the BEA.

ABC’s GMA The coverage was not better. The network chose to dish out 289 seconds of coverage on — wait for it — cooking. Apparently the economy contracting amid sky-high inflation wasn’t newsworthy enough for the journos owned by Disney. 

Conservatives under attackCall ABC News (818-460-7477), CBS News (212- 975-3247) and NBC News (220) 664-6192 to demand that they cover the horrible GDP news for their morning viewers.