Only 1% of Media Stories On Spiking Gas Prices Even Name Obama's Anti-Oil Policies As Possible Culprit; Most Prefer Business Bogeyman of "Speculators"

The way they... surround a story, as an old New York Times advertising campaign used to brag.

- Gas prices have risen almost $1-a-gallon since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, yet President Obama's drilling moratorium and other anti-oil policies have barely been mentioned by the networks in that time span.

- Only 1 percent (3 out of 280) of oil price stories since the spill has made any connection between the administration's anti-oil actions and the jump in gasoline prices.

Choices are usually a matter of tradeoffs. We choose one thing at the expense of another. Most of us intuitively understand that you can't have it all, and choosing one is choosing against another.

Shills attempt to claim there are no tradeoffs, that choices are all upside and no downside. You get this when buying a car, buying a home... or watching Make Believe Media "news," which represents the policies of their beloved liberal Democrats as almost never having any tradeoff-downside associated with them. Ever.

Now, if a Republican proposes tax cuts... well, hot damn, but you will soon be hearing about an awful lot of bad consequences attendant to that choice.

But Obama's anti-oil permitorium? Any possible tightening of supply caused by that?

No. Why do you ask?

And in case your memory is psst-ing you "Didn't they always link high gas prices with Bush?," why yes. Yes they did.

The Second Term of Jimmy Carter: Lefties are starting to worry, as Eric Alterman does, that Obama is looking less messianic and more malaisiac. Among other problems, Obama faces $5 a gallon gas all summer (and probably longer than that), which is, despite the media's lack of intellectual curiosity about the state of things, at least partially chargeable to Obama.

On that last point, that's me talking, not Eric Alterman. I'm sure Alterman thinks that there is absolutely no connection between the US not drilling for oil and oil costing a lot in the US.

Why do you ask?

posted by Ace at 01:44 PM

| Access Comments