A Bad Deal for Workers Ignored by Network News

Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday made the case against a proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. The international agreement would be a “disaster” for American workers, Sanders said in an interview on MSNBC, but good news for multi-national corporations that pay Vietnamese laborers the minimum wage of 28-cents an hour.

Did you know that? You wouldn’t if you relied on network news to tell you what’s going on in the world. A new study by Media Matters for America found that there wasn’t a single mention of the Trans-Pacific Partnership during the past six months on the CBS Evening News, ABC's World News and NBC Nightly News. The Ed Schultz show on MSNBC (where Sanders was a guest on Tuesday) was responsible for 32 of the 33 mentions of the trade deal during the same six-month period on cable new programs on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.

Maybe it helps to point out important issues that the networks ignore. In a letter last Jan. 16, Sanders and eight other senators asked TV executives why there had been “shockingly little discussion” about global warming on the Sunday shows. Then, this past Sunday there were serious discussions about climate change on all three major networks’ Sunday shows. Coincidence? Sanders welcomed the development. “This is a step in the right direction. Global warming is the most serious environmental crisis facing our planet.” Fox News’ Roger Ailes has not replied to the senators.

Watch Sanders discuss the bad trade deal on MSNBC

Read the senators’ letter on global warming coverage

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Read the This Week transcript

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