On Wednesday and Thursday, ABC and NBC have omitted from their flagship morning and evening newscasts the Wednesday morning release of the November inflation report (known as the Consumer Price Index) that showed the Biden economy coming to an end on a sputtering note with a jump in prices of 2.7 percent from this time a year ago.

With the Federal Reserve and economists having hoped inflation would have fallen to roughly two percent, that nearly three-quarters of a point disparity is less-than-ideal.

Thursday’s CBS Mornings was the only flagship morning or evening show to bring it up. Co-host Nate Burleson began by telling CBS business analyst Jill Schlesinger that “we all thought that things were stabilizing,” but prices the last two months have continued to creep up, so he wanted to know “what’s going on.”

This 'CBS Mornings' segment was the only mention on the top morning or evening newscasts of ABC, CBS, and NBC of the new inflation report, meaning ABC and NBC haven't said a word about it on their lead shows pic.twitter.com/LUPzjD5zJZ

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) December 12, 2024

Schlesinger said “it’s hard to think about” inflation in “a methodical way” and conceded it’s “a drag,” due in large part to “shelter or house and, while those costs have been coming down, as people are renewing rents and leases…[w]e are still 4.7% higher than we were a year ago.” 

To really drive that increase home (pun intended), she said increased housing costs make up “about 40 percent of the increase” in inflation.

Burleson then asked about prices for “those end-of-the-year indulgences” and Schlesinger framed it as mixed with “toy prices down about 3.5 percent from a year ago” and while at home food costs (i.e. trips to the grocery store) are only up 1.6 percent from last year, certain sectors such as eggs (37 percent jump) continue to cause pain.

She closed by trying to have people cheer up:

So, it’s been fascinating because we know wages have been rising on an annual basis faster than the inflation rate. That’s good. It’s helping people catch up. Interestingly, in a survey recently people said I expect inflation rates to remain at this level, but I’m feeling okay about my personal financial situation. That’s a survey out from the New York Federal Reserve, so we’ll have to see if people are going to still feel better as prices stay at these levels.

Instead, ABC covered stories such as Thursday’s Good Morning America celebrating a new junk fee regulation by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News had a bizarre investigation on dead body traders in Las Vegas.

Schlesinger returned for CBS Mornings Plus and kvetched “[i]t is is so disheartening when people say ‘oh, the inflation rate, it actually ticked up from one month to another’” and while “[i]t is a bummer,” she argued the bright side is it’s not where inflation reports used to clock in at nine percent years earlier.

“[P]rices are still high and I get that why people are so bummed out about the fact that these prices are 23 percent higher than they were just five years ago. So even if the rate is coming down, it’s all – it's fine, but people are still struggling with those higher prices,” she added.

Later, co-host Adriana Diaz tried to put a positive spin on things, which Schlesinger was more than happy to assist in by telling viewers no one should want prices to truly go down (click “expand”):

DIAZ: It is. I think sometimes people get confused, when you think about inflation coming down, they expect prices to come down, but really it’s just prices aren't coming up as much when inflation comes down, right?

SCHLESINGER: This is what is so confounding to people because you know, you see someone, a geek like me. I come on television. I say it’s great news, the inflation rate is coming down. The prices are still high and again, we are talking about the rate of increase of prices. Now, people want prices to come down. That's actually not a good thing. When prices come down, we are in a deep, horrible recession, so we can go back to the spring of 2020 and prices were basically flat or falling. That was not a sign of a healthy economy. What we are hoping for is that inflation marches ahead, two, two-and-a-half percent on annualized basis and that our wages are growing fast, but this period of time was unique. It was very painful and I know people were catching up from it.

Correspondent Kelly O’Grady was on Wednesday’s CBS Mornings Plus to provide initial analysis and was much more transparent in conceding “we are not making the progress that we wanted to see in the fight against inflation” and prices jumped in “[f]our out of the six grocery food groups that the index measures[.]”

Diaz also tried to argue things are actually quite good, but O’Grady wasn’t having it (click “expand”):

DIAZ: But if we pull back and look at kind of the larger trend, I mean, inflation was at nine percent just a couple summers ago. So even though we’re not at that two percent target, we’ve made a lot of progress, right?

O’GRADY: We absolutely have. But I don’t want to gaslight viewers. This doesn’t mean the prices are going down. They’re just rising at a slower rate.

DIAZ: Yes.

O’GRADY: So yes, we’re not at nine percent, but we want to see it come down to two percent.

DOKOUPIL: Yeah, wow. Not — not great news, but we can hope for better ahead

To see the relevant CBS transcripts, click here (for December 11’s CBS Mornings Plus), here (for December 12’s CBS Mornings), and here (for December 12’s CBS Mornings Plus).