The mainstream media — namely ABC, CBS, and NBC — devoted 62 times more coverage to the Trump tariffs and market reaction than to the sterling job numbers, according to a NewsBusters analysis.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the jobs numbers earlier this month, and they crushed expectations. U.S. employers added 228,000 workers to their payrolls in March, while expectations were only set for 140,000 jobs. As Breitbart News’s Economics Editor John Carney detailed, “The private sector’s hiring was much stronger than expected. Economists had forecast 115,000 jobs. Businesses added 209,000 jobs.”
However, the mainstream media could not be bothered to cover the outperforming figures — at least compared with the initial fallout from President Donald Trump’s historic “Liberation Day” announcement of reciprocal tariffs to even the playing field for the U.S. after decades of unfair trade practices.
“Reciprocal tariffs, again, reciprocal, back and forth, back and forth, and we would, I call this kind reciprocal. This is not full reciprocal. This is kind reciprocal,” Trump said during the Rose Garden announcement on April 2.
“We charge them, my answer is very simple, if they complain, if you want your tariff rate to be zero, then you build your product right here in America, because there is no tariff if you build your plant, your product in America,” Trump explained.
RELATED — Trump Announces Reciprocal Tariffs on All Countries: “This Is Liberation Day”“Likewise to all of the foreign presidents, prime ministers, kings, queens, ambassadors and everyone else who will soon be calling to ask for exemptions from these tariffs, I say, terminate your own tariffs, drop your barriers,” the president continued.
Wall Street initially panicked with selloffs, and it was all the mainstream media cared about. According to the Federalist, “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.”
It does not end there:
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.
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Broadcast coverage of the tariffs between April 2 and April 11 totaled 422 minutes and 45 seconds — more than 7 hours-worth.
ABC News was responsible for 148 minutes and 41 seconds of that coverage alone in that April 2 and April 11 time frame.
In comparison, these mainstream broadcast networks only gave 45 seconds of coverage to the April 4 jobs report over a 24-hour period, while offering 46 minutes and 50 seconds on tariffs coverage in that same time frame. Again, ABC devoted 14 seconds to the jobs numbers versus 17 minutes and 53 seconds on tariffs. Similar figures are true for CBS News and NBC News as well.
