Gas prices “inching up” or “through the roof” – depends on White House resident

When thinking about media coverage concerning gas prices, how different are the approaches today as compared to 2008 when prices went through similar increases?

Do you really have to ask?

All three broadcast networks together averaged just one story about rising gas prices per day. In contrast, when gas prices rose similarly in 2008, the networks averaged more than one story, per network, per day.

It took 24 days, from Feb. 1 to Feb. 24, for the national average for unleaded gasoline to climb from $3.101 to 3.228. The last comparable period of “eye-popping” gas prices: the 20 days between Feb. 21 and March 11, 2008, when the national average climbed from $3.086 to $3.227.

So the coverage is thinner, but what about who was referenced in the reports?

In 2008, network reporters mentioned “Bush,” the “president” or “government” in gas price reports 15 times more often than in 2011 under President Obama (15 stories to 1). A number of stories portrayed Bush as out-of-the-loop when asked about the possibility of $4 gas and hadn’t yet heard that prediction.

In contrast to the 15 reports referencing the Bush when gas prices were “through the roof,” the only 2011 story to mention Obama has been NBC “Nightly News” on Feb. 24, when Tom Costello quoted Obama as being “optimistic.”

Posted in

Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

8 Comments

  1. Dimsdale on March 2, 2011 at 2:30 pm

    Kid gloves for liberals, chain mail gloves for conservatives.  I have been documenting this since the disgraceful February to October 2004 wall to wall coverage on the Bush TANG debacle, culminating in CBS's Dan Rather actually reporting on fabricated records, while the media simultaneously blackballed the Kerry Swiftboat story until forced to report it when the Swiftboat vets started running ads and writing books.

     

    John Kerry never did put up the military/medical records that were supposedly going to back up his account of his service.



  2. winnie888 on March 3, 2011 at 1:31 am

    Yeah, I'm super "optimistic" that gas prices will be $4/gallon (or more) by summer.  Up in my neck of the woods, it's hit $3.55/gallon.  And no, this is not going to be a big deal with the msm because Obama is a DEMOCRAT.  If they could pull Bush out of their hats to blame for these price increases, they would.

    It'll be so much better when Malloy tacks more on for the CT gas tax.  Let the race to $5/gallon begin.



  3. Plainvillian on March 3, 2011 at 3:19 am

    To the popular media, it depends on whose ox is being gored, doesn't it?



  4. Dimsdale on March 3, 2011 at 4:30 am

    It is all part of the master plan to get us into Chevy Volts and Priuses.  Ick.



  5. PatRiot on March 3, 2011 at 9:27 am

    I believe that media has made a changeup in the last month.  They usually report the price of Brent crude but have recently changed to WTI -West Texas Intermediate ( the lower price of the 2), 

    That would explain the supposed inching up.

    ALso I believe that traditionally the difference in the 2 prices used to be about $7 a barrel, not the $12 that we are seeing now.

    http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/commodities/futu



  6. winnie888 on March 4, 2011 at 2:11 am

    Bottom line, when a democrat is in the White House, the media is happy to slap lipstick on any 'pigs' that emerge during said administration (such as 'skyrocketing' gas prices being referred to as prices 'inching up').  Maybe if we all listened to/watched real news like Al Jazeera we'd get the real story.

    Dims, I wouldn't be caught dead in a Volt.  A Prius, yes.  It doesn't matter in the end, because I can afford neither. lol



  7. Lynn on March 4, 2011 at 3:31 am

    Steve thanks, for writing what every Conservative has been thinking. I write mostly on Conservative Blogs. But today, I got the courage to rant about this subject on a Liberal Blog! It feels good, but in my heart I know, no one is listening.

     

    BTW, My guilty admission is that I am reading "Decision Points" by George W. Bush. I find it strangely comforting to read of his courage in making those incredibly hard decisions after 9/11. How sad that the media so besmirched his name and honor.



  8. Don Lombardo on March 4, 2011 at 4:40 am

    This is exactly what the Liberals want. High gas and oil prices are in their playbook to end the American addiction to OIL. It should be no surprise that we get crickets from the Democrat piss boys in the media. 



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