Oil & Gas Prices
CNBC Analyst Blames Israeli Minister’s Comments for Oil Price Spike
June 6th, 2008 1:50 PM
Today's dramatic $6-a-barrel spike in oil has been blamed on a couple of factors - a forecast by Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) claiming oil would hit $150 a barrel by July and a weakening dollar off news unemployment increased half a percent for the month of May. But CNBC contributor John Kilduff, who is also the vice president of risk management for MF Global (NYSE:MF), told viewers on the June 6…
CBS Blames Gas Prices In GM Closures, Disregards Expensive Union Labor
June 4th, 2008 10:25 AM
High gas prices strike again, says the "CBS Evening News." The June 3 "Evening News" blamed surging gas prices and General Motors reluctance to produce "more fuel-efficient vehicles" for closure of several plants, including one in Janesville, Wisc. "It's not just here and it's not just GM. Since 2005, the big three - GM, Ford and Chrysler - have had 70 plants and supplier shutdowns with a…
Not So Subliminal Pro-Obama Message in Tough Economy Story on 'Today
June 2nd, 2008 2:35 PM
In a hard economic times story by NBC's Kevin Tibbles on Monday's "Today" show there was a not-so-subliminal pro-Obama message on display as several times pro-Obama signs found their way into the background. Reporting on the increased traffic to pawn shops by the desperate to make ends meet in the "rocky economy," Tibbles, didn't mention Obama by name but the Illinois senator's name or image…
Despite Media, Buffett Recession Obsessions, 1Q Growth Revised Up
May 29th, 2008 10:05 AM
Matching predictions from Reuters and Bloomberg, the government's Bureau of Economic Analysis told us this morning that the economy grew at an upwardly-revised annualized rate of 0.9%. As I've said frequently, this is nowhere near acceptable. But it sure as heck isn't a recession.Initial reaction to the news by the Associated Press's Jeannine Aversa was unfortunately predictable (bolds are mine…
CBS’s Glor: Woman Trades Blood for Gasoline
May 28th, 2008 5:35 PM
On Wednesday’s CBS "Early Show" co-host Julie Chen introduced a segment on rising gas prices and what people are doing to ease the cost: "This morning in our series 'Running on Empty' the news gets worse about gas prices. They jumped 15 cents in one week to a national average of $3.94 a gallon, according to the Energy Department. That is a record price. And it's forcing some drivers to take…
USNewser's Unconventional Take on Economy: Not As Bad As You Think
May 28th, 2008 1:49 PM
The media have been quick to paint the slow-growing economy as though it's in recession. Indeed, as our friends at the Business & Media Institute discovered, the MSM now is painting the economy much worse than the print media reported the 1929 stock market crash that marked the beginning of the Great Depression.But kudos are due U.S. News & World Report's Rick Newman for staking out a…
Will Media Report Majority of Americans Against Bill Raising Energy Co
May 28th, 2008 12:20 PM
If a new poll identified an overwhelming majority of Americans favored increased energy costs associated with a global warming bill currently before Congress, do you think media would report it?Probably 24 hours a day, seven days a week until every citizen had heard about it, correct?Well, on Wednesday, the National Center for Public Policy Research, an admittedly conservative think tank,…
NBC's Hapless Viewers: 'Burgers' Not Ribs, 'Next Year' Only Soup
May 27th, 2008 9:58 PM
Catching up with ABC, which in the past couple of weeks has featured complaints from viewers about how higher gas prices mean they can't afford breakfast and a woman who whined that she can “no longer take joy rides on my days off,” NBC Nightly News caught up Tuesday night with its own set of hapless Americans who claimed they are forced to grow their own food, two who went with burgers (!) over…
'Sixth Sense' Creator to Release Global Warming Horror Movie in June
May 24th, 2008 11:04 AM
For several months, NewsBusters has been reporting the new horror movie genre "Global Warming's Gonna Kill You!"Entering the fray is M. Night Shyamalan, the writer/director of 1999's smash hit "The Sixth Sense."Set to open coincidentally on Friday, June 13, "The Happening" is Shyamalan's move "to milk global warming for all the terror and despair it's worth."So say USA Today's "Weather Guys" (…
Media Miss Schumer's OPEC Oil Production Versus ANWR Drilling Gaffe
May 23rd, 2008 2:38 PM
As the oil executives hearings on Capitol Hill received great media attention given soaring gasoline prices, supposedly impartial press members missed a classic gaffe by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as it pertains to the benefits of OPEC raising production quotas versus America drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.On Wednesday, Schumer once again claimed "if [Saudi Arabia] did a million…
A Time to Fumfer? Webb Wimps Out on VP Question
May 21st, 2008 10:39 AM
As political rituals go, the phony denial of interest in the VP nomination is among the most annoying. So credit Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee for unequivocally stating their willingness to serve as McCain's running mate. But please, politicians out there, spare us the feeble non-denial denials such as the one Jim Webb offered up on today's Morning Joe. Isn't Webb supposed to be Mr. No-…
Chicago Sun-Times Practically Runs Durbin Press Release on Gas Prices
May 20th, 2008 1:50 PM
News Flash!: Liberal politician decries price gouging, vows to use government to fix problem, mugs for cameras to hog credit.Oh wait, that's not really news at all. Unless you work for the Chicago Sun-Times.The online edition of the paper gave Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin a virtual press release with a 9-paragraph story by reporter Maureen O'Donnell. Here's an excerpt:The Second City has become…