Report Shows Network News’ Maximum Slant On Trump Tariffs

Stocks closed up Monday on Wall Street. You could almost hear the collective groan from the Trump-hating corporate media. 

As irresponsible as ever, the Pravda Press have pumped up their doom-and-gloom coverage of President Trump’s tariff policies to DEFCON 1. Per usual, the usual left-bending media suspects have used the tariff battles and the volatile markets as a cudgel to politically pound Trump with, churning “recession” chatter while all but ignoring positive news in the U.S. economy. 

A new report from media tracker NewsBusters shows just how slanted the coverage has been. 

‘Intensions Clear as Day’

On April 4, the day the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported hiring in March had surged by a stronger-than-expected 228,000 jobs, the broadcast networks over the 24-hour period devoted 62 times more coverage on the Trump tariffs and market declines, according to the report, exclusively provided to The Federalist. 

“Nobody’s faulting the media for covering an ongoing trade war or a dramatic dip in the stock market. But when they can’t even spare a full minute to cover an incredibly positive jobs report, they make their intentions clear as day,” Bill D’Agostino, Media Editor for NewsBusters and Senior Research Analyst for the Media Research Center’s News Analysis division, told The Federalist. 

The hyperbolic networks devoted 10 times more coverage to the tariff story than to last week’s report of declining consumer prices . While the Consumer Price Index dipped, led by lower prices at the pumps, ABC News had nothing to say about the aggregate CPI decline, NewsBusters found. The broadcast news network did air 16 seconds on slightly rising egg prices, according to the report.  

Corporate news outlets in general couldn’t help but drown the good news on inflation in worries over Trump tariffs.  

“U.S. consumer prices unexpectedly fell in March amid cheaper gasoline and used motor vehicles, but the benign inflation reading is unlikely to be sustained after President Donald Trump doubled down on tariffs on imported Chinese goods,” Reuters proclaimed in an April 10 story. 

Broadcast coverage of the tariffs between April 2 and April 11 totaled 422 minutes and 45 seconds — more than 7 hours-worth.  

Total tariff coverage by the three networks, according to NewsBusters’ review: 

› ABC: 148 minutes, 41 seconds

› CBS: 130 minutes, 5 seconds

› NBC: 143 minutes, 59 seconds

Meanwhile, the networks devoted a measly 45 seconds to the April 4 jobs report over the 24-hour period, compared to 46 minutes, 50 seconds of tariffs coverage. Total jobs report coverage by the three networks vs. tariff reporting:

› ABC: 14 seconds (vs 17 min 53 sec tariffs)

› CBS: 20 seconds (vs 12 min 7 sec tariffs)

› NBC: 11 seconds (vs 16 min 50 sec tariffs)

The networks spent a total of 173 seconds covering March’s Consumer Price Index decline over the 24-hour period beginning on April 10.  Meanwhile they, devoted nearly 31 minutes to tariff talk over the same period. 

Total CPI coverage by the three networks vs. tariff reporting:

› ABC: NONE (vs 11 min 54 sec tariffs)

› CBS: 9 sec (vs 13 min 28 sec tariffs)

› NBC: 165 sec (vs 5 min 27 sec tariffs)

D’Agostino asserts the flood of tariff coverage isn’t born out of a concern for the economy; it’s about damaging the Trump administration’s image. The song remains the same for an accomplice media that has spent the past decade trying to crush Trump and the MAGA movement. 

“Every news item we study, it’s always the same story. The corporate media are only ever on the hunt for bad news about the President,” the media analyst said. 

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Author: HP McLovincraft

Seeker of rabbit holes. Pessimist. Libertine. Contrarian. Your huckleberry. Possibly true tales of sanity-blasting horror also known as abject reality. Prepare yourself. Veteran of a thousand psychic wars. I have seen the fnords. Deplatformed on Tumblr and Twitter.

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