Editor's Note, 08/02, 10:19 a.m. Eastern: After their evening counterparts saw no reason to cover the downgrade of America’s credit rating, ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS Mornings came through with a full report and news brief, respectively.
The original post can be found below in full.
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On Tuesday, the credit rating agency Fitch Ratings downgraded the United States' credit score for the first time since 2011 due to the mounting debt and federal government disfunction that has occurred during the first two years of the Biden administration. Of the "big three" evening news broadcasts, only NBC Nightly News bothered to cover the credit downgrade.
Instead, ABC's World News Tonight & CBS Evening News were more preoccupied with a group of pedestrians getting hit by a car in NYC (ABC), and the U.S. Women's soccer team playing their first World Cup with "equal pay" (CBS). This is in addition to their obsessive coverage of Tuesday's indictment of former President Donald Trump in which ABC spent 11 minutes and 56 seconds harping on the news.
NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt reported that "Fitch downgraded its United States credit rating from top-tier AAA status today. Fitch, one of three credit rating agencies, said the decision reflects the erosion of governance following the debt ceiling standoff earlier this year."
"Fitch joins the S&P, which also stripped the U.S. of AAA status more than ten years ago. The White House strongly disagreeing with that move tonight," Holt added.
In a statement explaining their decision, Fitch said: "The rating downgrade of the United States reflects the expected fiscal deterioration over the next three years, a high and growing general government debt burden, and the erosion of governance relative to 'AA' and 'AAA' rated peers over the last two decades that has manifested in repeated debt limit standoffs and last-minute resolutions."
This bias by omission from ABC & CBS was made possible by Red Lobster on ABC, Allstate on CBS. Their information is linked.
The transcript is below:
NBC Nightly News
8/1/2023
6:41:44 p.m. Eastern
23 secondsLESTER HOLT: Fitch downgraded its United States credit rating from top-tier AAA status today. Fitch, one of three credit rating agencies, said the decision reflects the erosion of governance following the debt ceiling standoff earlier this year. Fitch joins the S&P, which also stripped the U.S. of AAA status more than ten years ago. The White House strongly disagreeing with that move tonight.
