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The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
Hannity addresses multiple factors
behind gas prices; CBS wonders why drug companies don’t make more
drugs; Michael Moore, ‘journalist.’
June 6, 2007
The Good
Fox News Channel’s “Hannity’s America”
detailed market forces and taxes behind gas prices – not the oil
companies, as the Democrats in Congress would have you believe.
Listening to congressional Democrats, one
would believe the oil companies are the sole force behind the
$3-a-gallon prices. Rep. Bart Stupak (D- Mich.) sponsored a bill
that passed through the House that would make gas “gouging” a
federal crime.
However, FNC’s Sean Hannity got it right on
his June 3 show – saying market forces contribute a hefty amount.
“But, the truth is far more complicated,”
he said. “Gasoline consumption in the United States has hit a record
of 380 million gallons a day. The price of oil is hovering around
$65 a barrel and a shortage of refineries across the country is in
part due to strict congressional mandates, as
The Wall Street Journal recently pointed out. Strict
environmental rules have discouraged the building of any refineries
for over 30 years.”
Taxes are also a large part of high gas
prices, Hannity said.
“According to the
American Petroleum Institute, in 2006 the federal tax on
gasoline was 18.4 cents per gallon and combined with state taxes the
national average of taxes paid on a gallon of gasoline was 43.2
cents per gallon,” he explained. “At the end of the day to fill up
your Ford Explorer, which has a 22-and-a-half-gallon gas tank, you
have to pay the government on average almost $10 in taxes.”
The Bad
'Evening News' Blames Drug Industry for TB Scare
The May 31 CBS "Evening News" spun the
recent tuberculosis scare into an attack on the pharmaceutical
companies.
After the program updated viewers on the TB
scare caused by one infected man's European honeymoon, reporter
Nancy Cordes launched into the blame game.
“Why haven’t more drugs been developed to
fight disease with the potential to kill thousands?” asked Cordes,
the CBS Transportation and Consumer Safety correspondent.
She then quoted a doctor who blamed the
bottom line.
“Pharmaceutical companies live to make a
profit and if antibiotics, for example, because they’re used for
usually 7 to 14 days, maybe as long as a month, can’t generate the
same kind of profits as a new cholesterol agent or the new Viagra,
which a person might take for years,” said Dr. Eric Nuermberger, an
assistant professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, at
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
The Ugly
Michael Moore a
journalist?
With Michael
Moore’s “Sicko” set to debut in the United States on June 29, Moore
got the opportunity to portray himself as journalist in the June 1
issue of Entertainment Weekly.
“In my case, it’s going to take 20 or 30
years to figure out what I came up with, because while it’s
journalism, it’s also satire couple with a large sprinkling of
opinion to create a work of art,” said Moore.
In the article, Moore was asked if he had
“an obligation to at least give the insurance companies the chance
to say no to you” about an interview, Moore replied, “Absolutely
not. They already have their forum. It’s called the nightly news.
Their story is told over and over again. You never hear the other
side.”
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 Jeff Poor at
jpoor@mediaresearch.org.
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