NBC, CBS Fail to Highlight Strong Economy News

Housing, oil and inflation were all common themes during the broadcasts of last night’s “CBS Evening News” and “NBC Nightly News.” But, unless you watched last night’s ABC “World News with Charles Gibson” instead of the other two, you would not have known about the positive GDP growth the U.S. Commerce Department reported yesterday.

“On the broadcast tonight, the economy is our big story,” “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams said to begin the October 31 broadcast. “We’ll have the interest rate cut, oil prices are soaring, and still, what about housing?”

It was the same dour mind-set on “Evening News.”

“With the ailing housing market threatening to infect the entire economy, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke administered another shot of preventive medicine today, with a quarter-point rate cut,” CBS correspondent Anthony Mason said.

Despite those two gloomy stories, there was really positive news announced the same day.

The economy grew at a 3.9 percent pace over the summer, “the fastest in 1 1/2 years and an impressive performance,” according to the Associated Press.

With the exception of CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo casual mention of “a much stronger than expected economic growth report,” the news was unnoticed by CBS and NBC.

However, ABC “World News Tonight with Charles Gibson” did include the “surprisingly” good news in its October 31 broadcast.

“[T]he economy grew by nearly 4 percent between July and September, the biggest jump in a year and a half,” ABC correspondent Barbara Pinto said. “Driving those gains – consumers, whose spending grew at more than twice what it did in previous months. The weakened dollar is providing a boost for American companies doing business overseas. American exports shot up more than 16 percent last quarter, the largest increase in four years.”