It has been a revealing week in the media, to be sure. Following the release of the Robert Hur Special Counsel report declaring Biden mentally unfit to stand trial, the reactions have been at a high hysteria level. The past week of media hand-wringing, hair-pulling, pearl-clutching coverage has completely shredded any veil of non-partisan coverage of this administration. What we have long know in theory has been all but confirmed these past days.
Less glaring, but no less revealing, has been something else in the press concerning the president. In my media column, I categorize the various methods the press employs in delivering their fractured version of news events, with one of those labeled “News Avoidance Syndrome”. This could either be the manner which a breaking news item is completely bypassed or when a story is dropped entirely once disqualifying information emerges (such as a shooter being found to be from a minority group.)
Still another example is when details of an issue are elided if they might cast a narrative in an uncomfortable light, and it is in this manner we look at the issue of gas prices and oil drilling in the country. The press has been insistent that the national economy is doing wonderfully (even as the administration has dropped the use of “Bidenomics”), and one of the areas reliably referred to is in regard to gas prices.
The past year the press has been leaning heavily on the lowering of gas per gallon, but this of course is done using the extremely high levels achieved after Biden took office as the baseline. Now, after months of telling us the President has no control over gas prices - and that same president accusing oil companies of gouging the public - as the prices have ebbed Biden is cheered. So what has he done exactly?
One tactic has been to drain the strategic oil reserves. The other is something the press does not want to address; Biden has once again permitted the energy producers to commence with drilling to their prior levels. When he first took office Biden pledged to cut off new drilling leases and take other steps to wean the public off of oil dependency, all while heavily promoting the Electric Vehicle market. This was all covered rapturously in the media.
Less so enthusiastic has been the coverage of this return to drilling approval.
Consider how often you have heard the press rave that gas prices have come down (from record highs) but how little journalists have noted it is a result of Biden opening up oil drilling once again, after the sharp drop he instituted. pic.twitter.com/6DfsxyV2dl
— Brad Slager: Flips On The Highbeams In Fog Of War (@MartiniShark) February 19, 2024
The lack of recognition here is telling because admitting as much would indicate the flaws in the gameplan from Biden they previously hailed. This has been a pattern of denial in the press. More stories are emerging of automakers losing big and adjusting electric efforts, and others are also easing back from EV hype. There was even the paradox in the story of a new EV battery plant being ramped up in Kansas that will use so much energy that a decommissioned coal plant is being brought back online just to service the power needs of this factory.
These details are not exactly being trumpeted in the media, and maybe less enthusiastically have been the efforts to report on Biden’s reversal on drilling. While a few outlets have been willing to offer some reports, these have been sporadic (WaPo delivered theirs on New Year’s Eve), and those are dwarfed by the initial levels of energy dedicated to Biden’s promise to curtail the oil and coal industries.
As has been the case the press works to massage the messaging for this administration. Whether it is defending his honor when his character is besmirched in a special counsel report, or shielding the facts when he is essentially forced to contradict his own energy position, the news outlets will carry the water for this president. Or, in this case, carry his gas cans.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member