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CNN 2008: High gas prices = BUSH!!! | CNN 2011: High gas prices = no easy answers
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A blog at CNN.com today begins as follows:
President Barack Obama confronted two political realities this week:
– Rising gas prices are bad for a politician’s poll numbers
– There is almost nothing a politician can do about it, at least in the short run.
Read the article here and see for yourself how CNN defends President Obama’s actions regarding oil prices. CNN showcases Obama’s recent rhetoric about gas prices, while conveniently neglecting to fact check any of President Obama’s claims (as CNN did when covering President Bush’s gas price rhetoric in past years).
Throughout the article, President Obama is depicted as an everyman who is just as concerned about gas prices as you are—and just as helpless as you are, too. There are “no easy answers,” the blog entry concludes, immediately after quoting President Obama’s complaint that such things as natural disasters and pirates were “not in [his] campaign platform.” “Add gas prices to the list,” CNN adds.
The blog entry is strange, given CNN’s past with holding Republican presidents accountable for fuel price spikes.
Take, for example, this 2008 article, entitled “’Two oil men’ to blame for high gas prices, Pelosi says.” You guessed it: the two “oil men” Pelosi blames are former president Bush and former vice president Cheney. The story focuses heavily on Nancy Pelosi’s attacks on Bush and his administration. CNN does not point out any “political realities” such as “there is almost nothing a politician can do about” gas prices.
In this article (also from 2008), CNN  states: “What the president should do immediately to lower gas prices, Pelosi said, is release oil from the 700 million barrels in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.” There is no mention of the “political reality” that apparently, no politician can make a difference regarding American gas prices.
CNN ignores “political realities” once again, perhaps most egregiously, in this 2008 article entitled “President, Congress offer no help on gas prices.” The piece begins:
Before departing the White House early Monday for a farewell tour of Europe, President Bush stole a page from his predecessor and suggested he feels American consumers’ pain.
“A lot of Americans are concerned about our economy,” Bush said. “I can understand why. Gasoline prices are high, energy prices are high. I do remind them that we have put a stimulus package forward that is expected to help boost the economy. And of course, we’ll be monitoring the situation.”
Americans are looking for more action, though, than monitoring the situation.
Take a moment and read through that article, and then compare it to the one that’s out this week (linked above, but also here). Do you sense any media bias?
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12 Comments for CNN 2008: High gas prices = BUSH!!! | CNN 2011: High gas prices = no easy answers
He will be a one term president.
This is about rampant speculation. Anytime there is an excuse in the political climate around the middle east up go the gas prices and this is not OPEC this is the unbridled commodities speculators. Obama is a Wall Sreet president with all his Wall St. guys around him to advise him (Summers, Geitner, Rubin, it goes on). They know he is an inexperienced novice and they can feed him garbage and he’ll think its steak. Obama won’t do anything about the gas speculation because he hasn’t been advised by these guys to do anything about it… and they aren’t interested in regulating derivitives.
Despite what the AIM headline says, I hope everyone who reads the CNN story notices than nowhere in the piece did the writer or anyone quoted blame high gas prices on Bush. The story is about steps Bush took to DEAL with high gas prices. And Pelosi blaming Bush and Cheney for the high prices is political gamesmanship, nothing more. How many Republicans now are trying to blame Obama for high gas prices? The same political gamesmanship.
Of course the truth – in 2008 and today – is that global market forces beyond the control of any president are responsible for rising – and falling – gas prices.
I hope People who read this and other websites are aware that they have agendas to promote – left and right – but we as readers need to exhibit a healthy amount of skepticism and filter out this bias, especially when it comes to vital issues like deciding who to vote for in the 2012 presidential race.
[...] CNN 2008: High Gas Prices = BUSH!!! CNN 2011: High Gas Prices = No Easy Answers [...]
In my opinion,,this is what I believe will happen. Speculators will ‘spec’
OPEC will ‘peck’,,& gas will go thru the roof. (not the Oil Co’s fault,it’s supply & demand)Just as spring of ’12 starts,,BHO will ‘announce’ that he has allowed the wells to be re-opened,,& new wells to be drilled. Then,,,as when Bush said it too,,,,the price will drop dramatically,,& BHO will be seen as a hero,just in time for the Summer & the Dem Convention,& the fools will re-elect him AGAIN. What BHO DID NOT tell us is that it is ONLY an ‘announcement’,,,that it will not happen AT ALL,,,,but, he will NOT say this until AFTER he is re-elected & the USA has been LIED to AGAIN. The Price will rise & we will be more like Europe ,,which is waht B Hussein O & his 40 Thieves want anyway.
The combination of illiteracy (See:http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2011/05/04/report-nearly-half-of-detroiters-cant-read/) and deliberate media misinformation (democrat/establishment republican/government media complex propaganda) is responsible for America’s decline.
A populace who is kept confused and uninformed cannot face problems or demand accountability from those who’s job it is to bring solutions. There is some hope with the information explosion in the internet age but until the people get organized (ala Tea parties) and begin a campaign for solutions we will continue to be represented by two corrupt political parties who are empowered by a press who is on their payroll and paid to keep the people in a fog.
Thank you to accuracy in media for their years of good work, attempting to shed light on the lies, cover-ups and complicity between the government/media complex.
I notice that the president is supposed to leave big oil (and businesses as a whole) alone to regulate themselves but also bring down the monopolies’ extortionist, collusionary prices.
Interesting how you don’t skip a beat when pivoting on your hypocritical rationales.
I also notice that free speech is only for tea partiers and bigots, not for “undesirables” like muslims or NPR reporters.
Thank goodness most of the founding fathers (and mothers, thank you very much!) weren’t who the GOP and Tea Partiers think they were.
BTW, the tea party was about revolting against corporate power as much as government power (specifically government that was too entwined with religious power structures).
[...] Electricity TechnologyLaw Firm Brower Piven Announces Investigation of 99 Cents Only StoresCNN 2008: High gas prices = BUSH!!! var wpmlAjax = [...]
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[...] Stories like this beg the question: Remember when $3 a gallon was considered a ‘high price to pay for gas?’ (See links here and here) [...]
And as gas prices go up OBAMA polls go down There is good side to this all