Gassed: Pump Prices Fall Well Short of Media Predictions
The media should hire better “experts.”
An August 23 AP story noted gas prices are falling prior to Labor Day. Despite calling the price drop “unusual,” the AP reported the average price of gas at $2.704, thirty cents below of the $3 average predicted by the big three networks earlier in the year.
“And doesn't it always seem to happen this way? We were told today oil prices are suddenly up to 18-month highs. That means gas prices will rise just in time for the warm weather driving season,” NBC ‘Nightly News’ anchor Brian Williams reported back on April 1.
NBC wasn’t as egregious as CBS and ABC, who combined doomsday gas predictions with other liberal talking points. CBS used rising gas prices to attack the oil industry and tout economic recovery under Obama.
“A recent report projected pump prices will likely exceed three dollars a gallon this spring and summer,” reported Elaine Quijano on the March 22 edition on CBS ‘Morning News.’ “This year, demand for gasoline is low, but energy analysts say the industry is responding by closing refineries to keep gas prices high.”
Quijano’s “experts” were “exceedingly” inaccurate. According to data from the Department of Energy, only the West Coast has seen average gas prices higher than $3 this summer and the national average has yet to hit $3.
Yet back in March the networks touted “analysts” claiming gas prices would rise over the summer. On the March 19 edition of ‘Good Morning America,’ ABC’s Elizabeth Leamy took the predictions one step farther by citing rising gas prices as a sign of economic recovery.
“But more importantly, last year this time, we were in the depths of the recession. So in a funny sort of way, rising oil and gas prices are a sign of optimism that the economy is recovering,” Leamy reported.
Leamy claimed gas prices wouldn’t approach 2008 levels but she did cite “analysts” predicting a $3 average.
“Analysts think that we will not get up to an average of $4 a gallon again, but that we will get up to an average of $3 a gallon again,” Leamy said.
The media embrace high gas prices and this isn’t the first time the media inaccurately predicted rising prices. And they tend never to name the “experts” who make these predictions, especially when they’re ultimately incorrect.
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