In response to the far-left and union-led protests nationwide on Wednesday for a $15 minimum wage for fast-food and retail workers, NBC Nightly News applauded the protests with a glowing report that felt more like a campaign commercial.
Disguised as a segment on the broader topic of income inequality, interim anchor Lester Holt and correspondent Stephanie Gosk led the way in offering no opposing viewpoint and largely downplayed the political motivations behind the event.
Holt began by declaring that, supposedly, “higher wages for hourly employees” had “already” become a prime topic of discussion in the 2016 campaign for president as “workers took to the streets demanding better pay as the income gap is growing.”
The infomercial continued with Gosk as she began parroting union talking points: “On street corners around the country today, an organized cry for more money.” Following two favorable soundbites, Gosk touted how “[l]abor unions and these workers are demanding $15 an hour – more than double the federal minimum wage.”
The spin only continued as Gosk furthered the left’s argument:
Labor unions and these workers are demanding $15 an hour – more than double the federal minimum wage. The movement comes as Americans face the biggest wealth gap recorded in 30 years. In 2013, the median worth of upper income families was seven times more than middle-income families and a full 70 times more than lower income families. These protesters believe a higher minimum wage can be part of the solution. More than 20 states have already raised the minimum wage in 2014 or will do so in 2015. Private companies have announced wage increases as well, like McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, and Gap.
Before continuing, it should be noted that, when McDonald’s announced a wage increase for 90,000 employees on April 1, NBC Nightly News completely ignored the story. Moving on, Gosk then brought on Gravity Payments CEO Dan Price to fret that “the rich are getting richer and sometimes kind of the little guy, the normal, average worker is not really keeping up.” It was Price who made headlines for announcing plans to raise the minimum salary for the employees of his Seattle-area company to $70,000 over the next few years.
Gosk ended her segment by making an emotional appeal: “For generations, part of the American Dream has meant your kids will do better than you do. Now that they may not...there are loud voices demanding something be done to fix it.”
Gosk’s sole reference to the influence of labor unions in the demonstrations flies directly in the face of exactly how much they are behind the push. As the Washington Free Beacon pointed out, the giant labor union SEIU has invested in and benefitted from the protests:
Labor giant SEIU invested about $20 million on worker organizing committees in 2014, and they’re going to see a return on that investment on Wednesday as protesters assemble outside McDonald’s.
The Fast Food Forward movement, an SEIU-supported coalition group, is organizing protests in cities across the country at fast food franchises. The demonstrations are ostensibly targeted at raising hourly wages of workers to $15 per hour, more than double the current national minimum wage. But critics, such as Ryan Williams, a spokesman for Worker Center Watch, said that the protests are “street theater,” using “shell game” worker centers to gin up media attention and sympathy for its cause.
(....)
The union’s federal labor filings released in March showed that the SEIU spent nearly $4 million on the Fast Food Workers Organizing Committee in 2014, more than double its 2013 spending. It also pumped money into regional organizing committees, which are expected to serve as point-men to eventually organize workers. The East Bay Organizing Committee, for example, saw its SEIU allocations balloon to more than $1 million in 2014, triple the $300,000 it received in 2013.
For more on how misguided the calls for a mandatory $15/hour minimum wage are, I highly recommend checking out this issue brief from James Sherk of the Heritage Foundation that details how such an increase in costs couldn’t be absorbed by the fast-food industry without price increases.
The transcript of the segment that aired on April 15's NBC Nightly News is transcribed below.
NBC Nightly News
April 15, 2015
7:10 p.m. Easter[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE CAPTION: Pay Fight]
LESTER HOLT: Another issue that's already making its way to the presidential campaign – higher wages for hourly employees. Around the country today, workers took to the streets demanding better pay as the income gap is growing. Our report on this tonight from NBC’s Stephanie Gosk.
PROTESTERS: What do we want?
PROTESTERS: 15.
STEPHANIE GOSK: On street corners around the country today, an organized cry for more money.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I work two jobs to make ends meet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would rather buy my daughter's diapers than buy food for ourselves.
GOSK: Labor unions and these workers are demanding $15 an hour – more than double the federal minimum wage. The movement comes as Americans face the biggest wealth gap recorded in 30 years. In 2013, the median worth of upper income families was seven times more than middle-income families and a full 70 times more than lower income families. These protesters believe a higher minimum wage can be part of the solution. More than 20 states have already raised the minimum wage in 2014 or will do so in 2015. Private companies have announced wage increases as well, like McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, and Gap. Last night, we introduced you to Dan Price, CEO of a credit card payment company. Our cameras were there when he announced he was giving his entire staff a salary of at least $70,000. [APPLAUSE] We caught up with him at a protest in New York today. [TO PRICE] This comes a couple of days after you made your announcement. How are they connected?
GRAVITY PAYMENTS CEO DAN PRICE: You know, it seems like there's a major conversation about inequality brewing and, you know, the rich are getting richer and sometimes kind of the little guy, the normal, average worker is not really keeping up.
GOSK: For generations, part of the American Dream has meant your kids will do better than you do. Now that they may not –
PROTESTERS: We’ll never be defeated!
GOSK: -- there are loud voices demanding something be done to fix it. Stephanie Gosk, NBC News, New York.
