While many middle-class Americans are struggling to pay to fill up their cars to get to work, CNN’s Brian Stelter had NPR television critic Eric Deggans on Sunday's Reliable Sources to spread conspiracy theories that Fox News is only reporting on skyrocketing gas prices to prevent Americans from rallying around President Biden while he deals with the crisis in Ukraine.
Stelter did open the segment acknowledging that gas prices are indeed spiking, but true to form, he had to blame Fox News and “right-wing media” for exaggerating the rise in gas prices:
Can we have an honest conversation about gas prices? Because too much of the U.S. media chatter is distorted to the point of being dishonest. This week’s record highs are big news and they’re bad enough that they don't need any exaggeration. But there is exaggerating happening anyway. Like when newscasts focus on the outliers, the stations with off-the-charts high prices in a couple big cities.
Stelter then turned to senior media reporter Oliver Darcy who proceed to claim the coverage of gas prices and Republicans blaming Biden for the price increases are “good politics for Republicans.”
“Eric, are you feeling it in Florida as well,” Stelter asked, turning to NPR television critic Eric Deggans. “How do you read the coverage of high gas prices because it is obviously a real issue?”
Deggans replied that this kind of coverage of gas prices “isn't new for Fox.” Deggans then accused Fox News of trying to undermine President Biden’s standing with the American people as he tries to unite the country against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine:
They were trying to make this connection back in November and even earlier, and right now what it feels like is an attempt to sort of forestall the natural tendency that Americans have to rally around the President when he's in the middle of an international crisis, especially something like the Ukraine war where there seems to be a lot of agreement with how he's handling it.
Deggans then asserted that “these rising gas prices are a good way to sort of push back against the good feelings that Biden is engendering without actually taking aim at the Ukraine war or anything that could be sort of perceived as harming that effort.”
Stelter never pushed back against that crazed conspiracy theory, instead Stelter simply nodded his head and told Deggans his theory was “really interesting.”
This biased segment was endorsed by ADT Security Services, Prevagen, and Fisher Investments. Their information is linked so you can let them know about the biased news they fund.
To read the relevant transcript of this segment click expand:
CNN’s Reliable Sources
3/13/2022
11:50:15 p.m. EasternBRIAN STELTER: Can we have an honest conversation about gas prices? Because too much of the U.S. media chatter is distorted to the point of being dishonest. This week’s record highs are big news and they’re bad enough that they don't need any exaggeration. But there is exaggerating happening anyway. Like when newscasts focus on the outliers, the stations with off-the-charts high prices in a couple big cities. Fox has been doing a lot of this but other networks have as well. Take the handful of L.A. gas stations with notoriously high prices. I mean, I'm only in L.A. once a year, and even I know to avoid the station at Fairfax and San Vicente. Like I said it’s bad enough without showing out of context $7 gas signs.
In fact, California isn't even the best example of how high gas prices are on consumers. This CNN story points out that drivers in states like Mississippi and Nevada make lower wages on average so they feel the higher gas prices more intensely. See, the more you read about gas prices, the more you learn, the more complicated you realize it is. Right wing pundits are trying to make it sound simple, blaming it all on President Biden, the New York Times fact check about this was pretty explicit saying "Republicans wrongly blame Biden for rising gas prices." Biden then celebrated that fact check when he was speaking to fellow Democrats. But let's be honest, nobody from right wing media is going to acknowledge that fact check or point it out.
(...)
STELTER: There is also some exaggerating going on. Why do you think that's happening?
OLIVER DARCY: Well, it's good politics for Republicans, right? Because people associate how high gas prices are I think, with how well the President is doing, when you have these record gas prices, people say Biden’s not doing well. And then you have outlets like Fox reinforcing that view, saying that this is President Biden's fault. Had he not, for instance, suspended or revoked the permit for the keystone pipeline, the U.S. would have more oil production, not be reliant on Russian fuel. When we know that even if he hadn’t done that, the pipeline wouldn’t have been built. So that’s a nonstarter. So there are all these ways that Fox is distorting the story to pin the blame on President Biden and I think frankly if you're a Republican, it's good politics, it's just dishonest politics.
(...)
STELTER: Eric, are you feeling it in Florida as well? How do you read the coverage of high gas prices because it is obviously a real issue?
ERIC DEGGANS: I was gonna say you should come to Florida, I only paid $60 to fill up my tank. But what I will say is what’s interesting to me about this is this isn't new for Fox. They were trying to make this connection back in November and even earlier, and right now what it feels like is an attempt to sort of forestall the natural tendency that Americans have to rally around the President when he's in the middle of an international crisis, especially something like the Ukraine war where there seems to be a lot of agreement with how he's handling it. And so these rising gas prices are a good way to sort of push back against the good feelings that Biden is engendering without actually taking aim at the Ukraine war or anything that could be sort of perceived as harming that effort.
STELTER: Alright, that’s interesting, that’s really interesting.
