The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
CBS’s Harry Smith admits the media hyped high gas prices; CBS praises Schwarzenegger global warming plan; USA Today reporter leaves out woman’s role as wage activist.

September 6, 2006

The Good
     CBS News veteran Harry Smith finally confessed something that the Business & Media Institute (BMI) has reported for awhile and his colleagues elsewhere in the media have already picked up on: gas prices are on a downward trend.

     “It seems like a month ago we were all screaming with our hair on fire about the price of gas going over $3, no end in sight. And now it looks like it's dropping like a stone,” Smith marveled on the August 31 edition of “The Early Show.”

     “What's happening?” he asked of oil expert Tom Kloza.

     Kloza pointed to a fairly calm hurricane season thus far, noting that “the market anticipated all sorts of different calamities” that haven’t happened. Because of that, “we’re seeing much more supply” of gasoline on hand, driving down prices.

The Bad
     CBS celebrated California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to force 25-percent cuts in “greenhouse gas” emissions by the year 2020, painting the regulations as a sensible way to grow the economy and protect the environment. But reporter John Blackstone dismissed or ignored objections to the plan, including the charge that it actually does nothing to reduce greenhouse emissions.

     “Going its own way on global warming, America’s most populated state intends to roll back its greenhouse gas emissions to the level they were in 1990,” correspondent John Blackstone began his August 31 “Evening News” story, painting the Golden State’s chief executive as a hero who stands up to Washington, in favor of big government.

     Blackstone dismissed criticism from the oil refining industry that it would “drive business and jobs out of the state,” pointing to “unlikely supporters” of the governor’s plan like Peter Darbee of Pacific Gas & Electric.

     But the so-called market-based solution is just more regulation on private industry that will not actually reduce emissions into the atmosphere, the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Myron Ebell points out.

The Ugly
      “Identify sources whenever feasible. The public is entitled to as much information as possible on sources’ reliability,” the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) advises its members.

      But that’s not how USA Today reporter Stephanie Armour’s September 5 story on “living with the minimum wage” appeared in the paper. The full-page story and photo essay told how hard it is to live on a paycheck close to Florida’s minimum wage of $6.40 an hour. It left out that the star of the piece – depicted simply as a “low wage” worker who makes $6.55 an hour – was an activist for a group that advocates a wage increase.

      Armour’s article and five accompanying photos focused on “Alice Laguerre, 53, of Orlando,” a high school drop-out. “When I’m by myself, I cry. People never know when I’m down and out. Times are very hard,” she complained to Armour about life working low wages at an auto auction company.

      Nothing more than a sad story of one person left behind in a strong economy, right?

      Not exactly. Internet and Nexis searches indicated, and Justin DeLeon of the Orlando office of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) confirmed, that Laguerre is a community organizer for the liberal advocacy group, a fact unmentioned by Armour.

      Among ACORN’s policy objectives are raising the national minimum wage and enacting “living wage” laws at the local level.

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly tracks the best and worst media coverage of business and economics. Readers are invited to submit suggestions or news tips to staff writer Ken Shepherd at kshepherd@mediaresearch.org.