The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
It’s not oil, it’s refining capacity; the sun’s addictive rays; oil’s “breaking point.”

August 24, 2005

     ABC showed it can bring some perspective to oil stories, but don’t ask it about outlandish health research. And The New York Times proved once again that the cover story of its weekly magazine doesn’t have to be even vaguely believable.
 

The Good
     ABC’s “World News Tonight” deserves credit for an August 16 refinery story that showed how U.S. refinery capacity has fallen by 2.7 million barrels of oil per day. Betsy Stark showed how massive environmental regulations prevent construction of new refineries and keep gas prices high. Stark reported that no new refineries have been built in 30 years and explained the saga of one prospective refinery in the Arizona desert. Stark said: “It’s taken five years to get the air quality permits. The site had to be moved from Phoenix to Yuma for environmental reasons. And after a decade of planning, they still haven't broken ground.”

The Bad
     ABC’s “World News Tonight” discovered a new addiction – sunbathing. The August 16 broadcast found anchor Charles Gibson saying “that some people just can't help themselves” and he meant it. Reporter John Berman devoted almost two and a half minutes to a small study that claimed getting a suntan is “addictive.” The August 15 BBC News did a similar story, but did something Berman didn’t: asked other medical professionals who had “concerns” about the research.


The Ugly
     There’s ugly and then there’s The New York Times Magazine. According to a 7,400-word August 21 piece by Peter Maass, the world is reaching “The Breaking Point” for oil production. The only breaking point was the reader’s tolerance for scaremongering “Mad Max” predictions. The Times piece was the worst of the oil stories over the weekend and qualifies as one of the worst recently. Maass filled his story with comments from Matthew Simmons, author of a new book claiming oil prices will skyrocket soon. The story did its best to paint a great scary oil conspiracy as an inevitable “crisis ahead,” “whether in a year or 2 or 10.”


The Good, the Bad and the Ugly tracks the best and worst media coverage of business and economics. Readers are invited to submit suggestions or news tips to Director Dan Gainor at dgainor@mediaresearch.org.