WaPo's Misleading Headline on Saudi Oil Talks

WaPo's Misleading Headline on Saudi Oil Talks

By Ken Shepherd (Bio | Archive)
May 17, 2008 - 09:32 ET

President Bush's effort to coax the Saudis to boost oil output was given wildly different treatments on the front pages of the Washington Post than the British broadsheet the Financial Times.

"Saudis bow to oil pressure: Kingtom to lift output to highest in two years; US lobbying comes after price nears $128" reads the May 17 front page FT headline. (The headline for the online version is slightly different: "Saudis to boost oil output after US pressure.")

But the Washington Post headline painted Bush's diplomacy as an abject failure: "Oil Efforts Are Best Possible, Saudis Say: Bush Unable to Win Concessions Likely to Lower Gasoline Prices."

Of course, the Saudis DID agree to boost daily output by 300,000 barrels. As the Post's Abramowitz noted, "[t]hat would take Saudi production to 9.4 million barrels a day" whereas the max the kingdom can pump out a day would be "11.3 million barrels."

While the increase is not as good as Bush administration officials may have hoped, the Saudi visit by President Bush did yield a change in Saudi oil policy. While it may not be as much as Bush hoped for, it's not like he walked away with absolutely nothing to show for the visit, an impression the American MSM seem eager to portray.

Other U.S. newspaper headlines were worse, such as Baltimore Sun's misleading header for a May 17 AP story: "Saudi oil production unchanged."

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don't the Saudis

May 17, 2008 - 09:49 ET by sarcasmo

Keep info like oil reserves and capacity as a state secret? How would the newspaper (or a President) know their max output under such conditions??
JMR

The tax & spend drug war looks racist in the real world.

Nothing

May 17, 2008 - 10:02 ET by 10ksnooker

In the news is true anymore -- It's all designed to try and elect Democart socialist. Once done, everything will turn into instant roses and springtime. Until Iran nukes Israel.

Dare I say it...

May 17, 2008 - 10:30 ET by Foolican

Yellow journalism is afoot!

May 17, 2008 - 10:35 ET by

and a-knee, a-waste, & abreast

(yes i do noe the diff between waist and waste)

“i am the quixotic botg and i approved this message”

WaPo

May 17, 2008 - 12:23 ET by jaywl

Yesterday at around 5PM the Post , online, posted a story with this headline: "
Saudis to Increase Oil Output by Roughly 300,000 Barrels a Day". In a posting here I even contrasted that with a CNN headline, complimenting them, as hard as it was to do. However, that story and headline must have been written by a subversive in the newsroom. Obviously someone caught it and they quickly filed a new story with the proper truth written into it.

By the way CNN's Cafferty raised the ire of Red China and might start a war. The story is here: http://bbs.chinadail....

The jist of it is: "
Cafferty said in a TV show on April 9 that the Chinese products are
"junk" and the Chinese people "basically the same bunch of goons and
thugs they've been for the last 50 years".

"Cafferty used the microphone in his hands to slander China and the
Chinese people, seriously violated professional ethics of journalism
and human conscience", said Jiang."

You could substitute the words China and Chinese with your choice of anybody with a brain and be certain he has insulted them previously. Hey China---no surprise here! The article has a comments section and there are some real winners. Just one:

"What CNN doing to China now is therefore nothing new,it can be partly or wholely the purpose of CNN existence.

China should have known from the present Tibet episode and the long
experience of 150 years under the colonial powers that who are freinds
and who are blood suckers and be very careful not to be under surprise
attack and lose your teritory or sovereignty again.In order to
safeguard them China need to be strong economically and militarily,
China needs to match the West in firing power,you've already built too
many unnecessary sky high priced building for the Olympic.You urgently
need modern weapons to refrain these blatan behavior."

Crazy, huh?

This is funny, because

May 17, 2008 - 15:33 ET by ckc1227

This is funny, because everything I read yesterday said that Bush failed to convince the Saudis to increase output. The headline in my local paper today even said "Bush fails to win Saudi help on fuel". I still don't know which it is. Did he or didn't he?

Bush also had this to say:

"Our problem in America gets solved when
we aggressively go for domestic exploration. Our problem in America
gets solved if we expand our refining capacity, promote nuclear energy
and continue our strategy for the advancing of alternative energies as
well as conservation," he said.

"One interesting thing about
American politics these days is those who are screaming the loudest for
increased production from Saudi Arabia are the very same people who are
fighting the fiercest against domestic exploration, against the
development of nuclear power and against expanding refining capacity."

Agreed. Who are we to demand anyone increase their production when we refuse to increase our own? Still, President Bush should have been making this argument for the past 8 years(and doing something about it) instead of letting the environmentalists "jawbone" him into submission on the global warming scam, which is guaranteed to make things even worse.

Just one more example

May 17, 2008 - 16:21 ET by ThreePuttinDude

that you can't go into DC with that damn "New Tone" attitude. W brought this on by being to much of a nice guy. When you get kicked in the teeth time after time, do you stand there?

Not me, chump me once shame on you, chump me twice shame on me....