ABC’s nightly newscast chose to cover “Star Wars Day” — also known as May 4th — six times more than they covered the 3.9 percent unemployment rate.
According to a study by the Media Research Center, ABC’s “World News Tonight” spent just 15 seconds announcing the lowest unemployment rate on record since 2000.
The April jobs report also indicated that the economy added 164,000 new jobs. More important to ABC, however, was Star Wars fans celebrating their favorite day of the year.
ABC spent more than six minutes discussing Star Wars Day, including a whopping one minute and 38 seconds interviewing people in Alabama who are in the process of building a life-size version of the Millennium Falcon cockpit. They also plugged the upcoming Han Solo movie from Disney.
In comparison, CBS “Evening News” spent close to two minutes discussing the April unemployment numbers, which their reporter even called “amazing.” NBC’s “Nightly News” also gave the numbers about two minutes of coverage and noted that the “booming economy” is causing employers to fight for young talent.