ABC, CBS and NBC are consistent.
Consistently willing to ignore economic news, that is.
On May 30, the government released the latest estimate of how fast the economy grew in the first quarter. The 2.2 percent growth was just shy of analysts’ estimates, according to CNBC. It was the second estimate from the Commerce Department for the quarter.
ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News all ignored both of those announcements.
On May 30, those broadcasts were filled with coverage of Roseanne Barr’s firing over racist tweets, the indictment of disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, the story of an anti-Putin reporter who faked his own death to catch his hitman, new colon cancer screening recommendations and ongoing controversies surrounding President Trump, among other things. There were also upbeat and heartwarming feature stories about the National Spelling Bee and a female gymnast winning awards in spite of having a prosthetic leg.
But the broadcast networks still didn’t consider the latest economic report significant enough to make room for it.
Although GDP only came in at 2.2 percent for the first quarter, CNBC reported that there were “signs GDP growth gathered momentum early in the second quarter.”
On May 31, MarketWatch reported that analysts were anticipating second quarter growth at 4 percent or higher, thanks to strong personal income and consumer spending gains in April. It noted that Wall Street firms including Amherst Pierpont Securities, Macroeconomic Advisers, Natwest and Barclays all increased their forecasts.
MRC Latino found similar silence on evening news programming on Spanish-language giants Univision and Telemundo. Both ignored the latest news about the U.S. GDP.
