Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Newsbusters.org and selective thinking.


Before the latest dust-up, I hadn't really paid much attention to the right-wing media-related web site newsbusters.org and, after a few more minutes of poking around there, now I know why.

Here's a perfect example of NewsBusters criticizing CNN for a prediction that CNN never made (emphasis added):

Do you remember all those predictions in September that gasoline prices were going to $5 per gallon? As a reminder, here’s a report from CNN/Money on September 21:

“Remember when gas spiked to $3-plus a gallon after Hurricane Katrina? By this time next week, that could seem like the good old days.”

“‘We could be looking at gasoline lines and $4 gas, maybe even $5 gas, if this thing does the worst it could do,’ said energy analyst Peter Beutel of Cameron Hanover. ‘This storm is in the wrong place. And it's absolutely at the wrong time,’ said Beutel.”


Well, gosh Mr. NewsBuster, I don't quite read a prediction that gasoline will go to $5/gallon. What I read is an energy analyst suggesting that, in an absolute worst-case scenario, gasoline could go to $4, perhaps even $5/gallon.

Gee, that's not quite the same thing, is it? I'm betting that the rest of NewsBusters' so-called media coverage is similarly total crap. But that's just a guess.

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