Adjusted for inflation, oil will have to top $90 a barrel to set a record and gas $2.97 a gallon at the retail pump, but network anchors continue to falsely describe much lower prices as a "record" high. On NBC's Today on Tuesday morning, Ann Curry asserted: "Gas prices have hit a record for a third week in a row, now averaging $2.22 a gallon for regular." The night before, CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer called $58 a barrel "the highest price ever" for oil and claimed that $2.22 a gallon "for self-serve regular" represented "yet another record."
Curry, the MRC's Geoff Dickens noticed, reported during the 7am news update on the April 5 Today:
"Gas prices have hit a record for a third week in a row, now averaging $2.22 a gallon for regular according to the government. In some places prices are even higher. More than $3.00 a gallon at this gas station in San Luis Obispo, California."
The night before, on the April 4 CBS Evening News, Bob Schieffer reported: "For a while today, oil was selling for more than $58 a barrel. That's the highest price ever. The Energy Department says that gasoline is up seven cents in the past week to a nationwide average now of $2.22 a gallon for self-serve regular. That's yet another record."
Earlier CyberAlert items on mis-reporting of record high oil and gas prices:
-- March 17 CyberAlert: The futures price for a barrel of oil and the cost of a gallon of gas at the retail pump have been soaring, but they are far from record highs, yet the networks make that false assertion. On Wednesday night, Peter Jennings teased: "On World News Tonight, the price of oil is at another record high." Betsy Stark soon issued an inaccurate prediction that "gas prices are now within a penny of their all-time record." On CNN, Erica Hill referred to how "crude oil prices hit a record high today closing" and the "AAA predicts U.S. gas prices could reach an all-time high tomorrow." CBS's Bob Schieffer insisted that "the price of oil hit a record $56 a barrel today." NBC's Brian Williams declared that "the price of oil set a new record high -- $56 a barrel." PBS's Jim Lehrer maintained that "the price of crude oil rose to an all-time high today." FNC's Shepard Smith warned: "The cost of oil hitting an all-time high. It looks like the cost of gas is not far from behind." In fact, adjusted for inflation, oil will have to hit $90 a barrel to set a record high and gasoline would reach a record not at $2.07 per gallon but at a $2.97. See: www.mediaresearch.org
-- March 17 CyberAlert: CBS's Bob Schieffer repeated the error as he referred to how "the price of gasoline hit a record today" at $2.06 a gallon, but then he contradicted himself as he acknowledged that "adjusted for inflation, that's still about a dollar short" of the 1981 price. Meanwhile, NBC's Brian Williams again made the false claim that "retail prices for regular gasoline hit a record average of a little more than $2.05 a gallon," an inaccurate charge made on all the morning shows on Thursday. On Wednesday, Today's Matt Lauer had noted that "some economists are saying that if you take inflation into account that these prices are relatively better than for example some times in the late 1970s and the 1980s," but that didn't dissuade Today news reader Ann Curry, who proclaimed on Thursday morning: "Today gasoline prices are at a record high." www.mediaresearch.org
-- March 22 CyberAlert: Gas prices have "forced" a man to sleep at the office? The CBS Evening News on Monday night aired its silliest story since Bob Schieffer slid into the anchor chair nearly two weeks ago. After forwarding the canard about how gas prices "hit a new record," Schieffer warned that in Southern California "gas prices are forcing some drivers to take drastic action." Sandra Hughes looked a man who is "forced by economics to drive up to five hours a day" to his job in Malibu since he supposedly "can't afford to move closer to work" and "can't work closer to home," so he "sleeps overnight on a cot in his office." www.mediaresearch.org
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