In late October, ABC’s World News Tonight spend 16 seconds teasing how the price for your Thanksgiving dinner was going to increase in anticipation of the fuller picture that would show itself as the holiday drew closer. But with the price of turkey up 20 percent, other meats up 11.9 percent, and fuel up 50 percent, ABC was nowhere to be seen while CBS Evening News was touring a turkey farm on Monday and NBC Nightly News was chatting with the president of a grocery store chain.
“To the index, tonight and what will be a more expensive Thanksgiving this year,” announced ABC anchor David Muir on October 26. “Economists pointing to supply, transportation, and labor shortages. Every part of dinner expected to cost more from the turkey to dessert. Prices for meat, poultry, fish, and eggs up 10 percent in some places over last year.”
While Muir has not brought up the cost of Thanksgiving since, CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell trekked out to a turkey farm in Maryland and declared it the most expensive Thanksgiving ever:
O’DONNELL: How much is the cost of feed gone up?
CHRIS BOHER (farmer): It's almost doubled.
O’DONNELL: Rising costs making that bird on your family dinner table a pricey holiday treat.
Is this going to be the most expensive Thanksgiving ever?
BOHER: I guess to this point, it probably will be.
Chris Boher is a third-generation farmer and he’s had to increase his retail prices by 15 percent. “And that's just the Turkey,” O’Donnell noted. “The overall price of groceries, including Thanksgiving favorites like sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie has gone up 5.4 percent in the last year. For poultry, meat, eggs, and fish, it's even higher, an almost 12 percent increase.”
And according to Boher, everything from “feed, fuel, labor -- all those things have increased in price from 2020 to 2021.” He also explained that he buys “10 to 20,000 gallons” of fuel a year. “When you do it in those numbers, the price of diesel fuel now is twice as much as it was last year,” he added.
NBC made some progress on Monday, sympathizing with viewers struggling to make ends meet with inflation putting pressure on them after business correspondent Stephanie Ruhle spent Sunday asserting that the “dirty little secret” was that Americans could afford inflation just fine.
They left it up to business and tech correspondent Jo Ling Kent to mend relations with their audience on Monday.
“For millions gathering for the first in-person Thanksgiving in two years, be prepared to pay up thanks to a labor shortage in the supply chain. The retail price of Turkeys is up nine cents a pound compared to last year. The other reason? The higher cost of corn to feed those Turkeys and inflation,” she reported.
But while she did note that other Thanksgiving staples like cranberry sauce and packaged dinner rolls would be more expensive too, she spoke with Scott McClelland, the president of H-E-B Food and Drug Stores, who seemed to suggest prices were going up because “perceived shortages.”
Clearly, NBC still has some work to do to get back to reality.
ABC’s omission of people struggling to make ends meet and celebrate Thanksgiving was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Dawn and WeatherTech. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they fund.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CBS Evening News
November 15, 2021
6:44:06 p.m. EasternNORAH O’DONNELL: All right, we want to turn now to the skyrocketing cost of your Thanksgiving feast, from the Turkey to the trimmings. So, we visited a farm in Maryland to find out why prices are so high this year.
[Cuts to video]
The gleam of morning light washes over Maryland farmland where Chris Bohrer is raising a flock of all-natural Turkeys. And it's time for an expensive breakfast.
How much is the cost of feed gone up?
CHRIS BOHER: It's almost doubled.
O’DONNELL: Rising costs making that bird on your family dinner table a pricey holiday treat.
Is this going to be the most expensive Thanksgiving ever?
BOHER: I guess to this point, it probably will be.
O’DONNELL: How much have you increased the price of your Turkeys?
BOHER: Our pricing for retail went up almost 15 percent.
O’DONNELL: And that's just the Turkey. The overall price of groceries, including Thanksgiving favorites like sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie has gone up 5.4 percent in the last year. For poultry, meat, eggs, and fish, it's even higher, an almost 12 percent increase.
Why is the price of Turkey going up?
BOHER: Everything that we're buying nowadays is costing more -- feed, fuel, labor -- all those things have increased in price from 2020 to 2021.
O’DONNELL: Boher has 20,000 free-range Turkeys. His days are long and it takes heavy equipment to get the work done.
Fuel costs, how does that impact your business?
BOHER: You go to the gas station now and fill up your tank, maybe 10-15 gallons of fuel. We buy fuel 10 to 20,000 gallons a year. When you do it in those numbers, the price of diesel fuel now is twice as much as it was last year.
[Transition]
O’DONNELL: You have to pass the cost to the consumer.
BOHER: Or eat some of that cost ourselves.
[Transition]
O’DONNELL: Once you raise prices, do you ever see them coming back down?
BOHER: There’s a possibility. It’s very rare. Most businesses aren’t going to lower prices after they've already raised them.
O’DONNELL: Last year, as COVID swept across America, Boher kept his business going by raising smaller birds.
BOHER: We saw how the pandemic was affecting consumers, realizing that they weren't going to have large gatherings. We raised more smaller Turkeys last year.
O’DONNELL: What size Turkeys are you raising this year?
BOHER: Not as many smaller Turkeys. Some people still want a smaller Turkey. But with the families having larger gatherings, we want to make sure we have those as well.
O’DONNELL: Chris Bohrer is the third generation in his family to work this farm and, yes, those birds are part of the family.
BOHER: I tell people, you know, if you're feeding a family of four, the cost of feeding that family went up from last November to this November. I'm feeding a family of 20,000.
O’DONNELL: And get this, to feed those turkeys, it takes three pounds of feed for a Turkey to gain just one pound. Learned that new.
NBC Nightly News
November 15, 2021
7:16:40 p.m. EasternLESTER HOLT: We will turn now to The Price You Pay. Could this year's Thanksgiving dinner be the most expensive ever for your family? Jo Ling Kent with some ways to save.
[Cuts to video]
JO LING KENT: For millions gathering for the first in-person Thanksgiving in two years, be prepared to pay up thanks to a labor shortage in the supply chain. The retail price of Turkeys is up nine cents a pound compared to last year. The other reason? The higher cost of corn to feed those Turkeys and inflation.
SCOTT MCCLELLAND (HEB Food and Drug Stores, president): What we're finding is that people in anticipation of perceived shortages is that they’re rushing out to buy Turkeys now. Our sales on Turkeys were up 100 percent versus the same week a year ago last week.
KENT: Grocery chain HEB says customers should be flexible.
What can shoppers expect in tight supply or delayed
MCCLELLAND: I think one of the areas we're seeing right now is in pumpkin pie mix is that not that we don't have it, but we may find that the shipping from the manufacturer to our stores is a day or two behind. But on the other hand, they're going to be probably six or seven other brands that you can choose from.
KENT: Cranberry sauce is more pricier because it is more expensive to produce steel cans and trucking costs are up. Packaged dinner rolls are more expensive because the price of some ingredients spiked. Bakeries like Republic of Pie ordered their flour months ago and were still forced to hike their prices by $1.75 a pie.
JERAMI MONREAL (Republic of Pie, general manager): Naturally we had to go up a little bit in price. We go up incrementally as much as we can without trying to shake and stir the restaurant and our customers.
KENT: Even pie boxes are in short supply.
MONREAL: I was told that they're not going to have them for the rest of the month.
KENT: To stay on budget and get what you need, experts say buy frozen options and generic brands. And if you’re celebrating as a group, truly share the cost. Don't leave the host solely on the hook. Jo Ling Kent, NBC News, North Hollywood, California.
