On April 25, The Conference Board reported that it found consumer confidence at a four-year high. The network evening newscasts all ignored the news, focusing instead on their continuing drumbeat about high gas prices.
The Associated Press reported on April 25 that the Conference Board found that consumers shrugged off higher gasoline prices in April and sent a widely watched barometer of consumer confidence to its highest level in four years.
The Conference Boards latest report mirrors a rise in another consumer confidence index as measured by the Ipsos polling earlier in April.
The Business & Media Institute showed at that time how the media ignored good news.
While ignoring buoyant expectations by American consumers, all three
broadcast networks led with the pain at the pump.
NBCs Brian Williams opened the April 25 Nightly News insisting
that a nation of drivers and consumers does a slow burn over
another sudden sudden spike in the price of gas. ABCs Elizabeth
Vargas asked if President Bushs proposals to curb high gas prices
would be enough to help the people at the pump. Russ Mitchell,
substituting for Bob Schieffer on the CBS Evening News opened that
program asking if Bushs plans would have any real impact on
gasoline prices.
This latest move by the networks is similar
to how both ABC and NBC dealt with the three-year high June 28,
2005. The networks not only ignored the good news,
but ABC covered negative numbers twice as often as positive.
