An extensive new analysis of the news segments in the broadcast evening news programs of ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS has found that broadcasters devoted most of their economic coverage to the stock market (40% of all economic coverage) and inflation (22%) during Q1 2024 while devoting very little time to many other important economic issues like wage growth, national economic growth, economic inequality, unions, national debt, taxes, corporate profits and social security.
The study, which did not cover cable news, found that broadcast evening news by commercial broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC “offered relatively sparse coverage of the state of the American economy in the first three months of the year — the flagship news programs on ABC, CBS, and NBC only registered a combined 88 segments featuring significant discussions of economic policy or macroeconomic conditions over the period from January through March.”
