MRC research director Rich Noyes appeared Friday on the Fox Business program Cavuto: Coast to Coast to discuss the dearth of economic coverage amid porn-star scandal coverage. Cavuto said the focus isn’t fair and balanced.
Noyes agreed: “The media haven't been fair and balanced in years but the Trump era has put that into sort of hyperdrive. If you asked people in polls what they care about, the economy is usually number one or number two. Russia, and sort of these insider scandal stories like that are usually way down. The Michael Cohen case does not affect people's lives, the economy does. That’s where presidents usually rise and fall in the long term.”
Cavuto made the sensible point that the media can cover both stories. Noyes said the GDP number and the Europe trade announcement look strong this week. Then Noyes strongly suggested that you’re not covering politics if you refuse to cover economics. “You’re trying to manipulate politics, not cover it.”
NEIL CAVUTO: I’m a nerd here at Fox, that might shock you, but I'm fascinated with economic stories, financial stories, that kind of stuff, and I don't think many of my colleagues really are that much. They will report, I'm not saying they're loath to even discuss them but it’s not their cup of tea. I'm wondering if that plays into it, boredom about the stuff that’s our lifeblood? What do you make of that?
RICH NOYES: Well, maybe. I mean, I do think the the soap opera taken over everything else. But look at presidents who have been re-elected, like Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, they had strong economies going into their re-election year. Presidents who’ve been defeated, like Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, had weak economies and that was too much for them to overcome.
It’s almost always the economy that drives where presidents go and what their fate is and the fate of their parties. If you want to cover politics, you got to pay some attention to that. if you want to drive the narrative in your direction, then you go through and do this 90 percent negative, hammering on scandals, and not giving anything else any oxygen because you're trying to manipulate politics, not cover it.
