TV News Covered British Royal Visit 5,668% More Than Largest Academic Strike in U.S. History
TV News Covered British Royal Visit 5,668% More Than Largest Academic Strike in U.S. History
Over the past three weeks, CNN, NBC News, CBS News, and ABC News have dedicated a total of 1 minute and 40 seconds to the 50,000-strong California academic worker strike.
Over three weeks into the largest academic strike in U.S. history, U.S. TV news outlets have virtually ignored the story. With the exception of a one minute, 40 second segment on ABC’s Good Morning America on November 14, the first day of the strike, mainstream TV news—defined here as CNN, ABC News, NBC News, and CBS News—hasn’t covered the strike once.
In stark contrast, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and William, Prince of Wales—who took separate trips to the United States over the past week—have received a total of 34 individual segments, or 1 hour and 36 minutes of coverage. Our tally of coverage can be seen here.
NBC News dedicated 39 minutes to the royal visits, ABC News 20 minutes, CBS news 12 minutes, and CNN 25 minutes. (Note: These figures do not include ABC, NBC, and CBS’s online only streaming platforms. If it did the number would likely be much greater.) Both Harry and William took separate trips to Boston, which producers at America’s leading TV news networks determined was of urgent and top news priority. NBC News and The Today Show, in particular, covered each and every move of the Princes’ visit like they were the moon landing.
It wasn’t just puffy morning shows either. Ostensibly hard news programs like NBC Nightly News ran two different segments on the Royal visits. ABC World News Tonight ran two segments, and CBS Evening News ran three. None of the network evening news shows have mentioned the California academic strike at all.
The strike, which is now entering its 22nd day, has seen over 48,000 teaching assistants, researchers, postdoctoral scholars and other university workers demanding minimum living wages amidst a crushing California housing crisis. In a recent union survey, according to the New York Times, “92 percent of graduate student workers said housing consumed more than a third of their income. For 40 percent of them, it was more than half.” Yesterday, 17 strikers were arrested staging a sit-in in the lobby of the UC president’s office in Sacramento.
ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, and CNN all have a dedicated “royal expert,” “royal correspondent,” or “royal commentator”. (NBC News’s Keir Simmons has a slightly more respectable title of “chief international correspondent,” but he appears to just fly around following Prince William and Princess Kate.) ABC, CBS, and CNN do not have a “labor expert” or a dedicated labor reporter of any kind. NBC News does, Eli M. Rosenberg, but he has not covered the University of California academic strike.
None of the Sunday morning talk shows, NBC News’s Meet the Press, CBS News’s Face The Nation, ABC News’s This Week, or CNN’s State of the Union—which set the agenda for what people in Washington are supposed to care about that week—have covered the California labor strike since it began in November 14. CNN, which has over 500 hours of news to fill in the three weeks since the strike began, hasn't done a single segment on it.
The largest academic strike in U.S. history is simply a non-story to TV news outlets.
As I mentioned in my previous article on the TV news blackout on the California academic workers strike, labor is simply not seen as mainstream news. Despite record labor actions affecting millions throughout the U.S., the topic of labor and unionization is still relegated to a niche news topic—that is, until it affects “supply chains'' or threatens Democrats' midterm prospects. Then it rises to the level of a major news story, but only as a means for mainstream TV outlets to fearmonger about the negative consequences of strikes and demand Congress make said strike illegal, as evidenced by this mashup of CNN rail strike overage from the Recount’s Steve Morris:
Meanwhile, personal branding Netflix series, charity balls, and other vacuous day-to-day activities of the late Queen Elizabeth’s male progeny are given wall-to-wall coverage, journalistic resources, and attention. Despite a rise in labor activity over the past year, polls show most Americans don’t think unions are stronger than they were a year ago. One reason this may be is that mainstream TV, unless it’s rallying to make a pending strike illegal, simply ignores mass labor actions throughout the United States.
Hi Adam, Great work as always!
I don't see a way to contact you directly, but it's important- if you could reach out that would be great. Thank you.