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The twin angles of the federal budget were the Story of the Day. In the short run, 800,000 so-called non-essential government workers may be furloughed at the end of the week if a formula is not agreed to pay for the remainder of the fiscal year. In the long run, Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee Chairman, unveiled the Republicans' plan for the government to spend $6tr less over the next decade--and even then it would still continue to run deficits. NBC and CBS, with substitute anchor Harry Smith, both led with the looming government shutdown (which would be no shutdown at all since services labeled essential would keep going). ABC relegated both budget stories to lower down its news agenda and chose to lead with an opinion poll for the Associated Press by LifeGoesStrong.com on babyboomers' retirement nest eggs.

It was a perverse editorial decision by ABC to separate David Muir's report on babyboomers' reliance on Social Security (60% said their retirement plans have lost "significant" value since 2008) from Jonathan Karl's later report on the Ryan budget proposal--perverse because the key component of the Ryan plan was to "end Medicare as we know it" for many of those same babyboomers--those born after 1957. It would have been natural for ABC to yoke financial insecurity with healthcare insecurity into the same segment rather than making them seem separate. Neither CBS, nor even NBC, deemed ABC's choice worthy of mention--even though, if you check out LifeGoesStrong.com, it happens to be a publication of NBC Universal.

All three White House correspondents--NBC's Chuck Todd, CBS' Chip Reid, ABC's Jake Tapper--were assigned to cover the impasse between President Barack Obama and Speaker John Boehner on short-term funding. All three Congressional correspondents--ABC's Karl, NBC's Kelly O'Donnell, CBS' Nancy Cordes--attended the Ryan press conference. CBS' Cordes was not impressed: "The House Republican plan has no chance of passing, as is," she guaranteed, since the Senate is under the control of the Democrats.

Andrew Tyndall 4/7/11 4:53:46 pm

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