NBC Nightly News Focuses on “Dark Side” of 4.2% GDP Growth
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Good news, but. NBC’s Tom Brokaw on Thursday night highlighted how “the government reported today that GDP grew at an annual rate of 4.2 percent in the first quarter of this year,” but he then added an ominous “but” as he warned, “but there are also growing fears tonight that the good news may have a dark side.”<font size=3> That dark side, as outlined in a full story by Anne Thompson: potential interest rate hikes and inflation -- as illustrated by the price of nails.
ABC and CBS also ran “yes, but” items on the GDP, but avoided any “dark side” warnings.
On ABC’s World News Tonight, Peter Jennings announced: “The government has said today that the Gross Domestic Product, which measures the value of all goods and services produced in the United States, grew at 4.2 percent during the first three months of the year. That is slightly better than the last three months of 2003, but well short of the five percent growth that economists had actually forecast.”
Dan Rather wasn’t quite so downbeat on the CBS Evening News as the “but” actually stressed a positive spin on the news: “The government reported today that the U.S. economy was growing in the first quarter of this year at an annual rate of 4.2 percent. That’s less than economists were expecting, but it still indicates that a recovery is under way.”
Brokaw introduced the April 29 NBC Nightly News story, as taken down by MRC analyst Brad Wilmouth: “NBC News 'In Depth’ tonight, the economy, and there’s lots to report. First, the most important gauge of the American economy, the Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, suggesting now that the economic recovery has real traction. The government reported today that GDP grew at an annual rate of 4.2 percent in the first quarter of this year, but there are also growing fears tonight that the good news may have a dark side. NBC’s Anne Thompson, 'In Depth.’”
Thompson began: “To find signs of the improving economy, look no further than the growing number of home renovations in New York’s Westchester County. Here, builder Andrew La Salla has his very own gauge, what he calls 'dumpster envy.’”
Andrew La Salla, next to dumpster in yard filled with debris from remodeling: “This is a 20-yard dumpster, and this represents more of a status symbol than a Cadillac or a Mercedes Benz in your driveway.”
Thompson: “But he also sees signs of a growing concern: inflation.”
La Salla: “Steel, copper, even nails. Nails are up 50 percent in the last six months.”
Thompson: “And it’s those rising prices that are a potential warning flag in today’s otherwise solid report about the economy’s performance in the first three months of the year.”
Brian Wesbury, economist: “Rising inflationary pressures eat into the ability of consumers to buy goods and services that they need and, as a result, holds back consumer spending over time.”
Thompson: “That’s the fear. So far, consumers have stayed strong. Yet outside Denver, Lisa Hagan says the spikes in everything from gasoline to milk are straining her family’s budget.”
Lisa Hagan: “You have to think about it all the time because it affects everything.”
Thompson: “Including interest rates. To keep inflation in check, some economists believe the Federal Reserve will eventually have to raise rates from today’s historic lows. In Virginia, where farmers finance much of the equipment they buy from Ray Pippin, he worries a sudden rate hike could crush his company’s comeback.”
Ray Pippin: “When the interest rates go up, we see that our, our overall sales either level off or come back down.”
Thompson: “Yet, as long as the economy keeps creating jobs, more than 300,000 added last month, economists say there’s little reason to worry.”
Wesbury: “The bottom line is is that as long as jobs are growing, we are in a self-sustained recovery, and interest rate hikes by the Fed can be absorbed by the system.”
Thompson concluded: “A recovery trying to build on its momentum and not get hammered by inflation. Anne Thompson, NBC News, New York.”
Or hammered by dire media focus on the “dark side” of a booming economy. |
