Virginian Pilot: “Go gasoline prices, go!”

Want to read about a paper that’s cheering on the rise in gas prices? In the print copy of the Virginian Pilot the headline reads “Gasoline prices gaining ground.”

“Gasoline prices gaining ground.” “Gaining Ground?” Are the American people cheering on the rise of gas prices as if they were VCU in the Final Four?  How about gas prices have doubled in the last two years?  Headline in the Washington Times blog page: Gasoline up 100% under Obama.

How about gas pieces acting like a heavy tax on the American people? How about gas prices making everything we consume more expensive? How about the Greens, the Left, Democrats and the MSM (but I repeat myself) taking every opportunity to stifle domestic gas, oil, nuclear and coal production? How committed to the Obama Administration and its Luddite energy policies do you have to be to write a headline about skyrocketing gas prices like “Gasoline prices gaining ground.”

The subhead in the print edition reads “Filling up at the pump isn’t fun for the purse, but it could be worse.”

“… it could be worse.” Why yes, gas prices could be $8 a gallon … $25 dollars a gallon … not available at any price. This is stupidity on stilts. No, check that. This is pure ObamaSpeak. It’s right up there with “jobs saved.” It’s right up there with multi-trillion dollar deficits which “could be worse, (what comes after a trillion)?” It’s similar to starting a third war with a country for no vital national interest without consulting with either Congress or the American people; it could be worse!

I don’t know who is responsible for the headlines, the “reporter,” Philip Walzer, or some editor, but the choice of viewpoint in this article is obvious. This is a Virginian Pilot editorial disguised as a news article taking the most positive spin on the fact that gasoline prices have doubled in the last two years under the Obama administration.

In news stories the theme is typically reinforced by the choice of people the reporter chooses to quote. In this case, we have the manager of a cab company telling us that "Until it goes over $4, I'm not going to raise my eyebrows about it." This, despite the fact that his drivers pay “…an extra $12 to $15 daily.” That’s about $5500 annually for you MBAs out there. But there’s a difference between cab drivers and everyone else. Cab drivers can raise their rates to cover their fuel costs. You can’t.

You may note that the on-line version of this story doesn’t have the propaganda headlines. Perhaps someone realized that this attempt to make light of the cost of gas was a little too much and decided to change it. But it shows you the way the MSM manipulates and uses propaganda to frame every situation in such a way that it helps their ideological cause. I have little problem with opinion writers who propagandize, that’s what they’re paid to do. But the news should not be political propaganda; and it’s a leading reason that print media is rapidly being phased out of people’s lives as a source of information. We can get all of our opinion and facts on-line from many different sources. Why pay to have it delivered to your doorstep in such crude form?

Watch for it: the Virginian Pilot will cover the sharp rise in food prices now taking place with the headline “Food prices gaining ground.” “Buying food isn’t fun for the purse, but it could be worse.” Why yes, you could be taking your pay home in a wheelbarrow and spending it before it becomes worthless.