Appearing on Fox Business Network’s Varney & Co. Thursday morning, Media Research Center President Brent Bozell unveiled a new MRC study exposing the leftist media effort to protect President Biden from blame for high gas prices. [bold, links added]
Bozell also highlighted MRC polling of battleground state voters showing that poor reporting on energy policy may have affected the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
“Alright, who does the media blame for high gas prices?” host Stuart Varney asked.
Bozell broke down the new numbers in the study of morning and evening network newscasts over the past month:
We’ve looked at every story on the networks covering the surging, out-of-control gas prices that are killing the average Joe out there since the war began in January – on February 24th.
Of all the stories they’ve done, in 33 cases they blamed Russia. In 3 instances they blamed the Biden administration. So by a disparity of 11 to 1, they are saying it’s somehow Russia that’s doing it, not the policies of this administration.
Bozell then emphasized the impact such slanted coverage can have, even to the point of swinging elections:
Now, what have they done – why is this so important? We took a survey, Stuart, before – right after the 2020 elections. We went into the battleground states, to the seven battleground states, and we asked them a series of questions – of Biden voters – did they know about something, and if they knew, would it have affected their vote?
We asked them about – we asked them, did you know that under the Trump administration America had become energy independent? 50.5% of Biden voters had never heard this.
He pointed out that the poll found “5.8% of Biden’s voters in those battleground states said they would not have voted for him had they known this,” which very well could have changed the outcome of the contest.
Varney followed up: “The Democrats blame gas stations for price gouging, they blame oil companies for profiteering. I bet that’s played heavily in the media, has it?”
Bozell asked a question of his own: “We looked at that one as well. Do you know how much time has been spent by ABC, NBC and CBS combined since January 21st, 2021, on the cancellation of the Keystone pipeline, which would have given us the energy to stop all this?”
After Varney correctly surmised it was “not much,” Bozell revealed the paltry amount of air time Biden’s disastrous decision received: “29 seconds…That’s it.”
Read more at NewsBusters
Oil is a global commodity. There are a number of factors that have created the current “spike” in oil prices. I’d suggest underinvestment in exploration & production & required infrastructure by the industry for starters. Poor commodity prices beginning in 2014 and (then) a worldwide pandemic beginning in 2020 depressed demand. So, a “one-two punch” on the supply side. Ongoing international instability (i.e. Russia/Ukraine War) has created a short term “panic” which will level out as the conflict is resolved. The ICING on the domestic energy front is the Biden Administration regulatory policies. Well documented acts on federal lands, EPA emissions, FERC & SEC activities have ALL contributed to an uncertain domestic market. Add to that strict capital discipline. industry worker shortages and supply chain challenges and you have all the ingredients to hamper any quick “ramp up” og U.S oil production. So, I’d rate Biden’s responsibility of these higher prices as PARTIALLY true. He is not responsible for all of it, but he hasn’t done much to make it any better…
Of course their not we all know by now how much the M.S. Media worships the Democrats look how they treated Obama they kissed his rings like with Bill Clinton compare that to the gutter level way they treated Trump the NYT,s and CNN