This is How You Do It
by David Atkins (“thereisnospoon”)
Bloggers spend a lot of time criticizing the media for vacuous “he-said she-said” fact-free reporting that more resembles stenography than journalism. Journalists respond that it’s their job to be objective rather than partisan. Bloggers then respond that journalists needn’t have an ax to grind; they merely need to report facts in context, while calling out obvious lies. If reality tends to a liberal bias, then that’s just the way the chips fall.
Of course, that’s the when the conversation stops, because journalists are much more afraid of being called partisan by conservatives, than they are of not telling the truth.
So it’s nice whenever a traditional media outlet covers a story like it should be covered. Case in point: CNN Money’s article about Michele Bachmann saying she’ll bring back $2 a gallon gas, courtesy Charles Riley:
President Michele Bachmann has a promise: $2 gas.
“Under President Bachmann you will see gasoline come down below $2 a gallon again,” Bachmann told a crowd Tuesday in South Carolina. “That will happen.”
This is normally when the traditional media will find some liberal or non-partisan commentator to cast doubt on Bachmann’s ability to fulfill that promise, then counter it with some from the Heritage Foundation claiming if we only do away with regulations and drill American coastlines, Bachmann might be able to get it done.
But that’s not what happens.
Sure, politicians promise all kinds of things on the campaign trail. But Bachmann, a leading contender for the 2012 Republican nomination, is wading into truly tricky territory.
The price Americans pay at the pump is tied to the crude oil market — a global system largely beyond the reach of Washington.
It’s certainly true that prices — now about $3.50 a gallon on average — have risen since President Obama took office.
“The day that the president became president gasoline was $1.79 a gallon,” Bachmann said. “Look what it is today.”
Of course, that’s not the full story.
When Obama took office, the country was mired in a terrible economic contraction.
“That was in the 4th inning of the greatest recession of our lifetime,” said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service.
During recessions, demand for gasoline plummets as trucks pull off the road, companies cut back on travel and laid off workers drive fewer miles.
“You have to be careful what you wish for because the recipe for cheap prices these days is economic disaster,” Kloza said…
“We’re going to have to recognize the rest of the world has this increasing appetite for oil,” he said. “If we go below $2 a gallon, it probably means there has been a lot of wealth loss and we are in a deflationary period…”
That’s because the amount of extra oil that could be produced from more drilling in this country is tiny compared to what the country — and the world — consumes.
Plus, any extra oil the United States did produce would likely be quickly offset by a cut in OPEC production.
Amazingly, CNN is capable of fact-based context. Mention of oil being on a global market, such that domestic drilling won’t lower prices? Check. Mention of recessionary cause for low gas prices in 2009? Check. Mention of danger of deflationary spiral? Check. Mention of OPEC’s ability to negate any potential gains from extra drilling? Check.
The only things missing from the article are climate change impact problems, and the fact that rising gas prices are also largely a result of pure market speculation rather than demand–speculation that Bachmann is ideologically averse to curbing.
But overall, the article reflects the sort of journalism that informs and clarifies while holding politicians acountable. So bravo to Charles Riley at CNN Money for doing journalism right.
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