In the middle segment of Wednesday’s CBS Evening News, the newscast promoted a new Pew Research Study that illustrated the decline of the middle class in the years since the Great Recession to the point that, as anchor Scott Pelley highlighted, “[t]he middle class is no longer the majority in America.”
Of course, as the liberal media naturally does, they neglected to include any placement of blame on why the erosion has taken place and placed no blame on the Obama administration and its policies (including ObamaCare).
Before going to senior national correspondent Anthony Mason, Pelley explained that the middle class made up 61 percent of the country in 1971 but is now “down to 50 percent.”
Following an interview with a single mother who had lost her job during the recession, Mason reported that “[b]arely half of adults are now middle-income earners, defined as a household making between $42,000 and $126,000 annually.”
Citing one of the Pew study’s co-authors, Mason added that:
[A]s the middle class has hallowed out, the upper-income bracket has grown from 14 percent to 21 percent of Americans. That upper class now takes home nearly half of all annual income in the U.S., 49 percent, up from 29 percent in 1970.
Mason closed by furthering stirring the topic of income equality by hyping that “[t]he lower-income tier has also grown from 16 percent to 20 percent since 1970” with the middle class losing 28 percent of their wealth “between 2001 and 2013.”
Noticeably, the piece made no such effort to venture an explanation as to why so many in the middle class haven’t recovered their lost wealth, found new jobs, expanded take-home pay, or anything else related to that sort. In addition, there was no attempt to bring up the rising costs of healthcare, the growing regulatory burden, or the bloated tax code contributing to the decline.
The transcript of the segment from the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley on December 9 can be found below.
CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley
December 9, 20156:46 p.m. Eastern
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE CAPTION: Shrinking Middle Class]
SCOTT PELLEY: Today a new study grabbed our attention. The middle class is no longer the majority in America. In 1971, 61 percent were considered middle class. Now, that's down to 50 percent. Anthony Mason tells us why.
ANTHONY MASON: Meredith Reilly, a 37-year-old social worker in New Jersey, used to think of herself as middle class.
MEREDITH REILLY: It was a good life. It really was. It was wonderful and now, if I don't go to work, I don't get paid.
MASON: Her county job, which paid about $50,000 a year, was eliminated in the recession. A single mother of two, Reilly now works three part-time jobs and makes less money.
REILLY: I think the tough part is not preparing a future for my children that my parents prepared for me.
MASON: Barely half of adults are now middle-income earners, defined as a household making between $42,000 and $126,000 annually. The percentage has been falling steadily since 1971. Richard Fry, who co-authored a new Pew Research study, says that as the middle class has hallowed out, the upper-income bracket has grown from 14 percent to 21 percent of Americans. That upper class now takes home nearly half of all annual income in the U.S., 49 percent, up from 29 percent in 1970.
PEW RESEARCH’s RICHARD FRY: It's in the that middle Americans are worse off, it's that they're falling behind relative to upper-income adults.
MASON: The lower-income tier has also grown from 16 percent to 20 percent since 1970. Meredith Reilly's been among them since she was laid off. She has a college degree and a master's but little hope.
REILLY: I just don't feel like the jobs are out there that are going to put me back to where I was.
MASON: The Pew study found the Great Recession hit the middle class especially hard, Scott. Their median wealth fell by 28 percent between 2001 and 2013.
PELLEY: Anthony Mason, thank you, Anthony.
