Just NBC the Gas Hypocrisy!
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Did I call this yesterday or what? NBC’s Matt Lauer begins a Today Show segment on rising gas prices by saying, “There’s some troubling news. Gasoline prices are back on the rise, and some analysts say it could get even worse, just in time for the summer driving season.”
If Matt sounds even more robotic than usual reading the script in his ‘prompter, that’s because the dean of NBC newsreaders anchormen pleaded with incoming president-elect Obama on Meet the Press to raise gasoline prices, when they were temporarily at their lowest, back in early December of 2008:
TOM BROKAW: Let’s talk for a moment about consumer responsibility when it comes to the auto industries. As soon as gas prices dropped, consumers moved back to the larger cars once again. The SUVs are the big gas consumers. Why not take this opportunity to put a tax on gasoline, bump it back up to $4 a gallon where people were prepared to pay for that, and use that revenue for alternative energy and as a signal to the consumers: “Those days are gone. We’re not going to have gasoline that you could just fill up your tank for 20 bucks anymore.”
You can see Brokaw in action in a Silicon Graffiti video I made at the time called “Rendezvous with Scarcity.” I’ve cued-up the YouTube clip to just before Brokaw’s appearance.
Noel Sheppard of Newsbusters wrote at the time in response:
If you needed any more proof that liberal media members don’t give a darn about the state of the economy or the American people, and instead just want to raise taxes, you got it Sunday when Tom Brokaw advocated gas prices, which have plummeted recently, be kept at $4 a gallon with government keeping the added cost.
And as I mentioned in the video, the New York Times and the Washington Post expressed near-concurrent identical sentiments as Brokaw. Groupthink or JournoList-style message coordination? You make the call!
Why, it’s almost like these news guys are not honest.
BTW, can you imagine if they had imposed a large tax on gas in 2008? That would have sent us straight to the 1930s kind of economy. Some of these people must be so insulated from reality they do not understand there is a massive economic crisis right now.
I honestly think if the fed just balanced the damn budget even though it would take absolutely gargantuan cuts, the dollar would become more stable and we’d have more buying power… it would be like giving all American workers a pay raise.
I mean a fake balanced budget… like the late 90s one. Then we could tackle a legit balanced budget with the entitlements added in.
That we will ultimately pay for that is not optional. One way or the other, it’s going to get paid. Probably via stupid taxes like a gas tax, and probably with some inflation (though entitlements are tied to COLA so that won’t work).
We can’t even get NBC to be serious about simpler stuff like gas prices.
“Where people are prepared to pay that…”
Hilarious. Anybody even remotely independent would have stated, $4, “which people were forced to find a way to pay for.”
I kinda hope it goes to $10 a gallon. I frequently bike to work (quite a considerably distance BTW) and I’d enjoy sticking Obama’s “energy prices will necessarily skyrocket” comment on youtube in their face. If that hasn’t been memory-holed by then anyhow.
Laurer: “There’s finally some refreshing news. Gasoline prices are back on the rise, and even more encouraging is some analysts say it could go even higher, just in time for the summer driving season. We hope this finally convinces people to buy the Chevy Volt or at least a smaller vehicle. We want to commend President Obama for listening to the people. This is proof that a competent Government does listen.”
And why are oil refineries closing? EPA regs?
Let’s be honest, though. Lauer did call rising gas prices “troubling news”. He may not have been pleased to give that news, but he did report it.
The thing to remind liberals is:
1. Gas prices going up is not an accident: it is part of the liberal plan to get you to buy more efficient cars and to change your driving habits.
2. The plan is being accomplished by: (1) reducing oil refining capacity, (2) reducing domestic oil production, and (3) by increasing oil transportation costs.
3. The current problem is due to: (1) our dependence on foreign oil, and (2) Iran’s crazy moves that endanger oil availability.
4. If the result is a staggering foreign balance of payments and increased inflation, that’s just collateral damage.
So when gas prices go up under Bush, it’s because he’s in bed with the greedy Big Oil Men. The msm screams about it- how he’s sticking it to the working class. When they go up under Obama, it’s to teach us about consumer responsibility. anyone see a pattern here?
I can see why Lauer is so uneasy about gas prices: if they hit $5 a gallon the economy will slide back into recession with all the rising unemployment that entails. Heck, how will people find jobs when they can’t afford to drive to their employment interviews?
Given the above, Lauer can stick a fork in Obama next November–he’ll be done.
Brokaw is as out of touch as they come, and he’s also made the fatal mistake of believing his own press — proof he’s no journalist.
Another
rubeeager co-conspirator self-identifies.If the average national price of gas shoots past $4 a gallon, you can bet that we here in Democrat-ruled California will be paying more than that.
Easily.
Ahem.
If gas prices go up and stay up, how can I afford to save up the down payment on a Volt? Or any vehicle, for that matter?
By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, June 6, 2008
*****
Announce a schedule of gas tax hikes of 50 cents every six months for the next two years. And put a tax floor under $4 gasoline, so that as high gas prices transform the U.S. auto fleet, change driving habits and thus hugely reduce U.S. demand -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/05/AR2008060503434.html
Well, no pundit is perfect.
Krauthammer’s motivation is for US energy independence. Not because he believes, like brokaw does, that burning hydrocarbons is evil and we need to appease Gaia.
Dont apologize for that clown ED, he’s a beltway denizen like all the rest.He just occasionally takes a swipe at his fellow denizens to keep you thinking he on your side. NOT!
Obviously tom brokaw (or any other phony conservationists) doesn’t use less fuel when gas prices go higher. He uses the same amount and pays, what for him, is an insignificant amount. When you know he already uses more fuel than the average person. Let’s put a tax on the type of alcohol that you drink. I’m guessing that lush might begin to feel that in the pocket if he drinks as much as his slurring indicates.
Flasback memory:
When George Bush Sr. was president and gas prices were low al hunt urged higher gas prices through taxes. He talked enviously about Europe’s five dollar a gallon gasoline. But when gas prices went up (I’m guessing after saddam’s invasion of Kuwait) but were no where near five dollars (looked it up and gasoline was $1.14 a gallon) starting screeching about the “high” gas prices. You can’t exaggerate how disingenuous these people are.
I have two more cents to add.
News Busters reported how tom brokaw said that governor brown was “fighting for California” because he is trying to push through the high-cost rail boondoggle, er, high-speed rail line. Haven’t heard brokaw say that Republicans were “fighting for America” because they are trying to push through the Canadian oil pipeline. I wonder why that would be?