Thursday, September 11, 2008

Less than one half of one percent of media reports do their job

You want to know why Republicans can have a shot at gettting a president elected despite coming off of eight years of one of the worst, the most corrupt, and the most unpopular presidents in U.S. history? It's because we have an irresponsible press that doesn't report on reality

Polls show that most Americans want to drill here and drill now. Why? Because the television media haven't told them just how stupid an idea that really is. That's the conclusion of a study by a group called the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a relatively independent economic think tank. The authors point out that there's a perfectly reliable source, in the form of the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Agency, that predicts that drilling on the outer continental shelf (OCS) will have little impact if any, on oil prices any time soon.

And yet, a survey of broadcast and cable network programming found that:

... out of 267 news programs between June 16th and August 9th, in major media outlets on this subject, there was only one, or less than one half of one percent, that cited the EIA's estimate that the increased oil production would not significantly affect gasoline prices.
Here's a relevant excerpt from the 2007 EIA study that got a single mention (on CNN):

The projections in the OCS access case indicate that access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030.... For the lower 48 OCS, annual crude oil production in 2030 is projected to be 7 percent higher — 2.4 million barrels per day in the OCS access case compared with 2.2 million barrels per day in the reference case. Because oil prices are determined on the international market, however, any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant.
"Drill here, drill now" is just another means by which Republicans scapegoat "liberals" for problems that Republicans won't solve, but will exacerbate.

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