How Media Outlets on the Right and Left Covered the Latest Inflation Numbers
This article is part of Media Bubbles, a regular feature that looks at how different news and opinion outlets — large, small, and often partisan — are covering the 2024 presidential election.
Prices rose 3.3 percent in May from a year earlier, according to data released Wednesday, a lower number than expected. Partisan media outlets covered that number very differently.
Conservative sites acknowledged there has been progress in the fight to bring down inflation. But they also used the announcement to criticize President Biden’s handling of the economy, saying the figure was too high to begin with.
Some liberal sites celebrated the news as a victory for Mr. Biden’s economic agenda.
Inflation is a key concern for Americans in this fall’s election, polling shows. And for most voters, their assessment of the economy mirrors the media landscape: Democrats tend to approve of Mr. Biden’s handling of the economy, while Republicans disapprove of his job on the issue.
Here’s how a sampling of outlets covered the news:
FROM THE RIGHT
The Daily Wire
Conservative commentators and outlets have persistently blamed Mr. Biden’s policies for spurring high inflation, driving up the cost of everything from basic necessities to airline tickets. Like Republican lawmakers, conservative outlets have repeatedly referred to the increasing prices as “Bidenflation.”
Inflation reached a four-decade high of 9.1 percent in June 2022. The rate has since fallen considerably, but it remains higher than the Federal Reserve’s target of 2 percent.
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