Fox News - Let's Start Pumping Crude Oil to Fight those Russian Commies!
A condensed analysis of 15 hours of Fox News week ending 3/6/22
This past week ending March 6th, 2022, Fox News blamed U.S. energy policy for the Russians decision to invade Ukraine. The Fox News solution to peace in Europe was for the United States to re-open the Keystone XL pipeline and maximize domestic fossil fuel extraction.
It might seem like an odd leap to stop a war with barrels of crude oil but that’s the exact solution the Fox News team promoted.
They also attempted to chastize Biden for changing his position on the Defund the Police movement, even though he’s been incredibly consistent regarding his stance on police reform since the summer of 2020.
Clip of the Week
The following is a super clip of sorts of the energy mania on Fox News last week.
Fox anchors also made odd allusions to communism and socialism regarding Russia even though the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The Russian economy is nowhere near socialist as most of the wealth is concentrated among a few extremely wealthy oligarchs.
Russia has a capitalist economy with an autocratic ruler. Democracy and capitalism do not always go together.
My bet is that Fox News is purposefully blurring reality on Russia’s economy to play into any lingering Cold War fears.
If only peace on earth was as easy as Fox News makes it out to be - Peace through pipelines! In reality the oil and gas industry is as complex as the world’s many intertwined economies.
To re-cap some of the same themes pushed from last week’s newsletter.
Fuel prices are high due to lower production and increased demand, mostly due to market disruptions during COVID-19
Energy independence does not mean the U.S. does not import oil; it only means the U.S. exports more oil and fossil fuels than it imports.
War and uncertainty tend to cause price spikes in commodities. Oil and gas are part of the global commodities market. A war in Europe that involves a large oil producer is definitely going to cause a spike in the price of oil.
Why re-opening the Keystone XL Pipeline won’t end the war in Ukraine
The Keystone XL pipeline was only 8% completed when President Joe Biden revoked the permit for it. The proposed pipeline was also an extension of a pre-existing pipeline that is fully operational.
The pipeline was supposed to transport oil from Canada down through the United States. The Fox News anchors implied the oil was from a source in the U.S.
Since 2014 the price of oil was also artificially depressed by both Saudi Arabia and Russia. When Saudi Arabia saw the rise of the U.S. as a major player in energy markets, they increased their production to lower the price. The 2014 peak of more than $100 a barrel dropped to $55 within a matter of months.
This was a direct attack on the U.S. fracking industry. Extracting oil through hydraulic fracking tends to be more expensive than traditional drilling.
The Russians joined the Saudis by increasing their output to disrupt U.S. shale production. This whole scheme collapsed at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic which caused the demand for all fuels to drop significantly.
When demand dropped, production slowed. It wasn’t worth it for producers to spend money to get oil or natural gas out of the ground if they couldn’t get a decent price for it.
What we are dealing with now is a surge in demand while production lags. The global economy heated up too quickly, which has also exacerbated supply chain problems and sparked inflation in multiple countries.
The gas and oil industry has no incentive to reduce prices. The modern world is hooked on energy, and petroleum companies will try to get as much money for their product as long as possible.
In this brief exchange with a Fox News reporter, Jen Psaki, White House press secretary, briefly explains the complexity of the industry. A producer can just sit on a lease in hopes of getting the highest price possible for any oil they extract.
To further complicate this intricate web of competing factions China and India both consume tremendous amounts of fossil fuels. Even if Europe and the United States radically change their fossil fuel production, Russia can always find customers for their oil.
Fox News anchors repeated the numbers in the image below on multiple shows. The numbers are misleading at best as this amount would be a small drop of U.S. oil production.
Sources
Insana: Energy prices are soaring, but the Keystone Pipeline wouldn’t have helped ease the pressure. – CNBC
Vultures are Circling the Ukraine Crisis – The New Republic
Ukraine makes the case for ending fossil fuels – Will Bunch Newsletter – Philadelphia Inquirer
‘Little Evidence’ Keystone Pipeline Would Level Prices Despite GOP Claims - Newsweek
The clumsy effort to criticize Biden on Ukraine using Keystone - Washington Post
Fox News mentioned the Keystone Pipeline 141 times in one week during the network’s coverage of the War in Ukraine. - Media Matters
Stories Fox News didn’t cover
The UN came out with an alarming climate report. If you want to look at the full report it is 3675 pages and available here. In summary the experts found that climate change is happening faster than expected and the window to mitigate some of the impending disasters is closing much more quickly than anticipated. It’s obvious why Fox News didn’t bring this up since they were pushing a completely contrary message.
Extreme flooding in Australia – The flooding is considered one of the worst environmental disasters in the history of country but it was not mentioned once.
An excellent jobs report – While Fox News personalities focused on rising inflation they neglected to mention the latest jobs report from February that showed the U.S. economy added 678,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate is currently the lowest it’s been since the start of the pandemic.
Jan. 6th developments – A recent court filing by the Jan. 6th committee alleges that former President Donald J. Trump and his lawyer John Eastman were part of a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election. Also a member of the Oath Keepers pleaded guilty to charges of seditious conspiracy as well as other charges and is cooperating with federal investigators including testifying in front of a grand jury. This story is huge but was eclipsed by the war in Ukraine. Fox News didn’t even mention it.
Fox Misleads their Viewers on Biden and Defund the Police
This clip doesn’t need much explanation. Biden hasn’t changed his stance much on police reform. This clip sort of says all you really need to know about it.
Dubious Expert of the Week
The cast of the Five
PBS NewsHour and Fox News covered the Russian invasion of Ukraine quite differently
Fox News focused on individual battles, often using a map of the country as a guide. It felt at times like a football coach showing various plays.
The commentary on “The Five” was especially terrible. The format of “The Five” is five personalities sitting around a table chatting about various events in the news. Every week the panel includes someone with a legal background, and a moderate who is described as a liberal.
The roundtable format of “The Five” is weak normally but things got really out of hand when the group discussed the war in Ukraine. No one on the panel seemed to know much about how NATO operates and by the end of the week the general consensus was that the United States should break international law and covertly bomb the Russian convoy. There were also calls for a no-fly zone over the Ukrainian airspace something that most experts warn could start World War III.
Here’s a short clip of some non-experts on “The Five” discussing their “brilliant” military strategy.
Fox News - How NOT to cover a war
On “Fox & Friends” producers repeatedly featured traumatized teenage Ukrainian girls to share their personal experiences of the war on camera. The segments felt exploitative.
The worst segment included a young woman speaking to Jesse Watters about how she had heard stories about Russian soldiers raping women, including underage girls. She hadn’t seen the attacks firsthand, and Watters had no idea how to handle what she was telling him. He came across as stilted and unemotional which just made her situation and the plight of the victims even more tragic.
In contrast PBS NewsHour had the following segments
· Oligarchs – A detailed look at how the sanctions might affect them and what kind of role they have in the Russian economy and government.
· The suppression of Russian media - In an attempt to control the narrative the Russian government has shut down several independent television and radio stations.
· A detailed profile on President Zelenskyy
· The Anti-war movement in Russia - Protesters face a prison sentence of up to 10 years. Russian police have even arrested children as young as seven for protesting the war in Ukraine.
· Parents in Ukraine – A profile of families with small children and how they were coping with the war. PBS interviewed both mothers and fathers.
Overall PBS used a far more diverse group of subjects for interviews in Ukraine. They spoke with both men and women of all ages, government officials and even an American living in Ukraine who had volunteered for the Ukraine military. Their subjects provided far more context of the conflict.
Even though Fox spent more of it’s airtime on the conflict most of its coverage was centered on battles or their intense push for an increase in domestic energy production.
By the Numbers
As I do every week I make a giant transcript of all 15 hours of footage and then track of how often certain words are used. The Fox personalities still seem obsessed with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). Even though AOC wasn’t trending in the news last week they still mentioned her 8 times.
Another odd phrase used by more than one anchor was the term “The Greens” or “Greenies” to describe anyone concerned about climate change.
Both Ainsely Earhardt and Dana Perino referred to “The Green New Deal” as if it was settled law. The Green New Deal is nothing more than a proposal and is not even part of the Democratic Party Platform.
For a bonus video I edited a complete arc of the tortured relationship Tucker Carlson seems to have with Vladimir Putin - A love story in three acts.
For next week I plan to cover my usual 15 hours of the first hour of Fox & Friends, one daily hour of The Five and The Ingraham Angle hosted by Laura Ingraham.