Dumb Media = Dumb Public = Dumb Policy

The prospect of offshore oil drilling has been discussed with much ballyhoo over the past month in the United States. The republican congress and a few democrats looking to capitalize on the public outrage of high gas prices have managed to stage an exaggerated fuss in order to get the attention of mainstream media. The likes of Newt Gingrich, President Bush, and others have used their bully pulpits to push this agenda on behalf of big oil. As expected, the media took the bait. Offshore drilling flooded the airwaves and the World Wide Web.

Pundits and commentators from news channels across the land were touting the latest polls that showed the majority of Americans now favor opening up restricted land to the oil companies. The usual news outlets like CNN, CBS, NBC, and FOX unanimously conferred that indeed an ostensible public consensus on drilling existed. They quoted polling results from the likes of Rasmussen, reporting 67% support for offshore drilling, CNN/Opinion Research Corp finding 69% support, an ABC News/Stanford University poll reporting 63%, and the list goes on and on. What the media failed to report was that some of the very polls they quoted also found that some alternatives to the energy crisis were even more favorable in the public's eye. In fact, the ABC News/Standford University poll found that 78% of Americans favor making "fuel efficiency standards for cars stricter." This was the story that mainstream media should have been talking about, not this drilling nonsense.

The bump in offshore drilling support reflected the public’s concerns and frustrations with our energy situation, and not necessarily a smart means to ameliorate them. When the polling actually provided attractive alternatives like raising the CAFE standards, offshore drilling seemed less appealing. Raising the fuel economy standards on cars would do more to reduce midterm gas prices, increase oil independence, fight climate change and air pollution than any attempt to put more land in the hands of oil companies. By the way, the U.S. is not exactly at the top of its class in this regard [see chart below]. As David Moore points out, many false conclusions about polls can be formed when you do not take into consideration how the issues are framed. He also states that many of the public opinion polls quoted did not make mention of the environmental trade-offs or reveal it likely would takes 5-7 years to start producing oil.

These are all reasons why the media frenzy behind lifting the moratorium on offshore drilling is unfounded. If we cannot count on a truthful national discussion about our energy challenges how can we expect to make wise decisions? Is this not the role of the media, to be a critical third party to powerful interests? The media's superficial and myopic coverage of America's energy issues is doing us all a grave disservice.