With all the media banter surrounding the ongoing government shutdown, ABC, CBS andPBS NewsHour seem to have conveniently forgotten that the national debt was even a major issue in this whole mess. Perhaps by emphasizing the multitrillion-dollar debt at all, the networks would be putting the Democrats in the hot seat for continuing to drag their feet on the negotiations.
MRC Business researchers analyzed Nexis transcripts between the start of the shutdown on October 1 to October 10, and found that none of the ABC, CBS, or PBS broadcasts even bothered to mention the national “debt” during that time period. (NBC transcripts weren't available.)
Reuters pointed out October 12 that the whole shutdown debate is “ignoring” the $37.6 trillion debt, a devastating “risk to U.S. stability.” In fact, reported Reuters, “independent analysts warn that the U.S. finds itself in a deteriorating fiscal position, with debt growing faster than the economy, interest payments on debt crowding out spending for programs and financial weakness threatening social trust funds for the elderly.”
Oh but ABC’s Good Morning America was sure on October 4 to make sure viewers knew that people “could suffer” if Democrats caved on their ridiculous hardline stance over wanting to spend an additional trillion dollars.
On the October 3 edition of PBS NewsHour, MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart was triggered over New York Times anti-Trump columnist David Brooks’s suggestion that Democrats were largely to blame for the shutdown. But PBS anchor Geoff Bennett didn’t even bother to broach the issue of the national debt.
But we shouldn’t be surprised by the media covering up a major turning point of an ongoing national issue because it serves their pathetic, long-running modus operandi of covering for Democratic politicians as much as possible, even when the amount of egg on their face is too obvious to ignore. They only care about the deficit or the national debt when the Democrats want to use the issue.
NewsBusters conducted an analysis of the media coverage around the past three government shutdowns, where media talking heads tried to pin most of the blame on Republicans for daring to show backbone by not increasing government spending. As NewsBusters Media Editor Bill D’Agostino put it October 2, “It seems that no matter how power is distributed in Washington, the media will inevitably blame Republicans any time the government shuts down — as long as Democrats control at least one of the three bottlenecks.”
Methodology: MRC Business used the keyword “debt” to search for any mentions on ABC, CBS and PBS NewsHour transcripts between October 1 and October 10. NBC News did not have any transcripts uploaded between those dates, so it was excluded for purposes of this study.
MRC Senior Research Analyst Bill D’Agostino contributed to this report.
