The national debt reached an appalling new high of $35 trillion, yet ABC, NBC and CBS News kept their evening viewers completely in the dark.
This new milestone went entirely unreported by ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News on June 29, despite the massive ramifications of the growing debt. By ignoring the increase in debt, the networks did not inform their viewers about the burgeoning threat to the federal government’s ability to fund Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare or the U.S. Military. They also overlooked how a growing national debt will lead to larger interest payments to service the debt.
Instead, World News Tonight and CBS Evening News spent time on Democratic talking points, making sure their viewers heard the latest attack on Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance. These two networks also highlighted presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s characterization of Republicans as “weird.”
World News Tonight also tried to scare its viewers by airing a brief clip of a speech by former President Donald Trump telling supporters that he would do such a good job in office that they wouldn’t have to vote again in four years. ABC immediately followed this clip by noting that Harris characterized his remarks as proof “that democracy is under assault,” which may give the impression that Trump plans to end voting. Meanwhile, CBS Evening News found time to carry water for President Joe Biden’s recent attack on the Supreme Court by mentioning accusations against Republican-appointed justices.
All three networks devoted coverage to the Olympics over the national debt, with World News Tonight discussing a swim cap floating in an Olympic pool. World News Tonight viewers may not know that the national debt hit $35 trillion, but at least they can sleep easier knowing someone saved the swim cap.
The Big Three networks’ silence on the national debt does not lessen its impact. During a July 12 interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box, The Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni pointed out the horrifying monthly impact of such a massive debt. “[T]he government is spending trillions of dollars it doesn’t have. I mean my goodness, look at the data we got yesterday,” he said, referring to the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s monthly statement for June. Antoni noted that “we spent $140 billion just in interest on the debt,” emphasizing that these funds didn’t even go to eliminating the debt, but merely to address the interest.
Antoni previously pointed out in an Oct. 21, 2023 post on X that the growing national debt leads to ever-growing interest payments, exceeding $2 trillion a year by 2030. He also noted that interest spending has already surpassed that of the military.
“Gross interest payments on the federal debt hit $879 billion last FY, eclipsing all military spending by $103 billion; if Treasury keeps issuing new debt ($500 billion this month alone) and rolling over old debt at higher rates, annual interest will exceed $2 trillion by 2030,” he wrote.
Conservatives are under attack! Contact ABC News (818) 460-7477, CBS News (212) 975-3247 and NBC News (212) 664-6192, and demand they report on the massive unsustainable spending of the U.S. Government and our growing National Debt.
