On Thursday, while ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS This Morning spent several minutes covering the new Republican tax plan and talked to top Trump administration officials about the policy, NBC’s Today couldn’t even bother to devote a single full report to the topic. Instead, the morning show devoted three times more coverage to the renewal of NBC sitcom Will & Grace.
At the top of the show, co-host Savannah Guthrie proclaimed: “President Trump unveiled his long-awaited tax overhaul plan, hailing it as revolutionary.” Minutes later, fellow co-host Matt Lauer announced: “...there’s a lot more to get to on this Thursday morning, including that sweeping tax overhaul plan just unveiled by President Trump and congressional Republicans.” Despite such declarations of the policy’s importance, only less than two minutes (1 minute 55 seconds) of coverage could be managed – and it was far from positive.
“The President is hailing it as revolutionary, but it’s not without controversy,” warned Lauer. Correspondent Kristen Welker followed: “ Tax reform has long been President Trump’s signature issue, and on Wednesday, he did unveil new details of a plan he says will help the middle class and build the economy. But critics argue it’s not clear how he’ll pay for it.”
“Still, after a series of legislative setbacks, Republicans on Capitol Hill and here at the White House say Mr. Trump needs a win,” she added.
While noting a “united front on taxes” among the GOP and House Speaker Paul Ryan calling it “vital to America’s future,” Welker quickly turned to opponents of the plan: “Independent budget experts warn the proposal could add more than $2 trillion to the debt over the next ten years. Democrats calling the plan a giveaway to the rich.” A clip ran of Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ranting: “The top rate on the wealthiest comes down, and the bottom rate on working class families goes up. What kind of plan is this?”
The reporter then spent the rest of the report criticizing the President on other topics, including “a growing firestorm over Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, now under scrutiny from Congress for charging tax payers for private jet travel” and “the President himself coming under fire from the daughter of Senator John McCain for criticizing the Senator.”
In sharp contrast to the scant reporting on reform the nation’s tax system, in the 8 a.m. ET hour, the morning show spent nearly six minutes (5 minutes 47 seconds) promoting the return of the network’s liberal sitcom Will & Grace.
Amazingly, Good Morning America, often bereft of substantive news coverage, spent over nine minutes (9 minutes 25 seconds) on the GOP tax plan, featuring an interview with White House economic advisor Gary Cohn. Co-host George Stephanopoulos demanded Cohn promise that the wealthy, particularly President Trump, would not benefit from the proposal.
CBS This Morning devoted over five minutes to the issue (5 minutes 3 seconds), which included a lengthy interview with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
How was it that the other two networks managed to find people in the administration to talk to about the major policy proposal while NBC could not?
During its Wednesday evening coverage of the tax plan, NBC Nightly News joined ABC’s World News Tonight in ignoring important details of the tax policy in favor of emphasizing criticism.
