Talking About the Economy, Couric Drops the ‘D-Bomb’

Want to get your evening news show off with a bang? Add the word ‘depression’ to your opening.

CBS Evening News Anchor Katie Couric opened her Jan. 26 broadcast saying, “Good evening everyone. The recession is deepening and for tens of thousands of workers today, it just turned into a downright depression. They just found out they’re losing their jobs.”

Couric might want to be a bit more careful using the “D-word.” As BMI has covered extensively, the media has a track record of talking making economic troubles out to be worse than they are – specifically throwing the word “depression” around in spite of evidence to the contrary.

Besides, later in the broadcast, CBS reporter Anthony Mason said, “The unemployment rate, now 7.2 percent, will continue to rise, says Standard & Poors, and could hit 9 percent early next year.” During the Great Depression, unemployment reached 24 percent.