Flashback: Remember When the Media Blamed a President for High Gas Prices?

By Garion Frankel May 14, 2021 at 11:05am

It is safe to say that the opening months of the Biden administration have been extremely unpleasant.

The nanny-state attitude toward the COVID-19 pandemic, the deepening border crisis and the collapse of the Trump foreign policy order have been problematic to say the least, but I think the gas crisis is the worst of them all.

The blame can be put squarely on Biden’s shoulders too.

As Sen. Tom Cotton told Fox News Thursday, “[The crisis] is the result of Joe Biden’s failed policies. First off, you look at our energy policy. We can’t solve the Keystone pipeline. We withdrew leases for the production of oil and gas. “

“It’s also the result of a failed foreign policy as well,” the Arkansas Republican added.

“Joe Biden has been appeasing and coddling Vladimir Putin in Russia since he came to office. It shouldn’t be a surprise that criminal gangs linked with Russian intelligence services feel emboldened to attack an American company that provides critical supply lines for so many American citizens.”

But where has the liberal media been when Americans have been struggling to fill their cars, and gas prices have gone through the roof? Giving airtime to Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, of course.

It wasn’t always like this.

According to NewsBusters, once upon a time, namely in 2005 and 2006, the establishment media was more than happy to rake the president over the coals for high gas prices. Of course, the president happened to be Republican George W. Bush.

Do you think the establishment media has always been biased?

NewsBusters was kind enough to provide numerous instances of this phenomenon.

In April 2006, ABC’s Meredith Vieira said on “The View” that “I’m a little peeved when I hear the president say there’s not much we can do about [gas prices], folks. … Where is his responsibility in all this? Five and a half years, and we’re dealing with these gas prices? It’s ridiculous.”

Before a Bush speech in New Orleans, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann told Chris Matthews in September 2005 that “today, they sent [Bush] to the Chevron refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi, as if reminding everybody of his oil connections and the government’s oil connections was not among the worst things he could do right now.”

Now, if it were just media talking heads complaining into the void, that would be one thing. But they also injected their spin and bias into questions directed at Bush administration officials.

For instance, in August 2005, CNN’s Soledad O’Brien asked Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman, “What can you, and what can the president do, to help people, because the prices are clearly spiraling out of control? … What about a national price cap?”

Despite basic economics being clear on how bad of an idea a national price cap would be, O’Brien continued to hammer Bodman with the policy.

“There are some people who say, gas is going to cost us $3 a gallon, the average will be $3 a gallon by the end of the week — by next week,” O’Brien said. “What about a national price cap?”

Evidently, hard-hitting journalism only matters when a Republican is president. Otherwise, the president is a lovely angel who can do no wrong, and any crisis that engulfs the country must be caused by outside forces.

It’d almost be funny if it weren’t so ridiculous.

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