For weeks, ABC has been hyping sequestration as a "fiscal emergency" that could "cripple" much of America and "vaporize" jobs. Yet, Monday's Good Morning America featured no stories on what the network had been calling "massive cuts."
On Friday's GMA, as sequester was about to hit, Josh Elliott hyperventilated, "Jobs vaporizing, flights delayed, even criminals walking free."
Day after day, the morning show conducted a "grim countdown" to sequester. On February 27 [1], Jon Karl parroted, "...The White House's list of terrible things caused by the cuts grows longer, including flight delays, kids losing vaccines, and meat shortages." On another program, the February 24 [2] World News, David Kerley warned, "Child care canceled for tens of thousands of kids. Long airport security lines." According to a new study by the Media Research Center, 89 percent of ABC's stories on sequester pushed "budget panic.
(For more on the MRC study and how all three networks covered the cuts, go here [3].)
On February 22 [4], an ABC graphic warned that "air travel could be crippled" in America.
On Saturday's GMA, reporter Reena Nina insisted, "The feds are fighting off the direst consequences, like airline backups due to fewer air traffic controllers."
Host Dan Harris referenced Barack Obama's mix-up of Star Wars and Star Trek on Friday. The journalist mocked the President's enemies: "I'm not even sure a Vulcan mind meld will work on this Congress."
On Sunday's program, the graphic still hyped the "massive" cuts. George Stephanopoulos appeared and lectured, "What no one knows is what the impact will be and what the political fallout will be from all that."
GMA viewers will just have to wait and see if the apocalypse predicted by ABC actually comes to pass.
-- Scott Whitlock is the senior news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here [5] to follow him on Twitter.