ABC Plunges Off Credibility Cliff

Touts Tax Hikes Over Spending Cuts By Absurd 17-1 Margin

ALEXANDRIA, VA – ABC World News with Diane Sawyer continues to tout the Obama Administration’s spin that tax hikes on the wealthy are the only solution to the looming “fiscal cliff” catastrophe. According to an analysis from the Media Research Center’s Business and Media Institute, in the three weeks following President Obama’s re-election, World News devoted more than 10 minutes 18 seconds to talk of tax hikes and just 35 seconds to spending cuts (a 17-1 margin).

NBC Nightly News
discussed taxes more than twice as often as spending (4 minutes 23 seconds to 1 minute 47 seconds.), while CBS Evening News gave tax hikes only three more minutes of coverage (14 minutes 5 seconds to 10 minutes 12 seconds). However, more than a third of CBS’s spending cut coverage total comes from one story detailing the horrific downside of spending cuts.

But ABC was by far the worst offender, refusing to even entertain spending cuts as a viable solution to the Obama Administration’s crushing budget deficits.

Media Research Center President Brent Bozell reacts:

“The ‘fiscal cliff’ is looming, but ABC has already plunged off the credibility cliff. No serious news organization could possibly commit 17 times more coverage to touting tax hikes as the solution to this crisis than spending cuts. ABC News is nothing more than the press office of the Obama Administration. They’re an embarrassment to the profession.

“Instead of telling the American people the truth about the Obama Administration’s reckless spending binge, the tax-happy liberal media are toeing the party line: raise taxes on the ‘wealthy’ and the crisis will be averted. As guilty as NBC and CBS are on this issue, ABC is without a doubt the most corrupt."

“ABC News’ coverage of the fiscal cliff is an abomination, and they simply can’t be trusted.”




To schedule an interview with MRC President Brent Bozell or another MRC spokesperson, please contact Jeremy Little - jlittle@crcpublicrelations.com (703)-683-5004