Bad News Bears
How Networks Distort a Good Economy
and Batter President Bush

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So Much for an ‘Expert’ Opinion

     Reporters choose the people they interview, but there is little accountability if their “experts” make bad predictions. The reporters just keep going back for more. On Jan. 21, 2006, energy analyst John Kilduff showed what problems can result when he warned “NBC Nightly News” that “$70 per barrel could prove to be the breaking point for the economy.”

     In fact, oil hit $78.40 in July, but the economy didn’t break. Although the report was not part of the study, Kilduff told CBS’s Harry Smith on July 12, 2006, that oil is “going to continue to soar, Harry. I think we’re just an event away from 3.50 or even $4 gasoline in a lot of places.” Both oil and gas have dropped substantially. Gasoline was at $2.96 that day. Its peak for 2006 was only seven cents higher and then it began to fall.

     Despite his track record of exaggerated predictions, NBC had Kilduff back on Aug. 7, 2006, to predict $80 for a barrel of oil. According to Kilduff, “I think the news on this is going to continue to get worse. Eighty dollars is easy to be had this week for oil. And I still think we’re just an event away from us getting upwards of $100 a barrel.” At the time of this writing, oil was at $60 a barrel.