TV News Covered British Royal Visit 5,668% More Than Largest Academic Strike in U.S. History

Adam Johnso:

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 arrestedstaging a sit-in in the lobby of the UC president’s office in Sacramento.