During Thursday’s episode of The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson, host Gretchen Carlson suggested on multiple occasions that the White House was manipulating the price of gasoline to possibly help out in the midterm elections. In typical Fox News fashion, Carlson didn’t say outright that President Obama was behind any recent drop in the prices. Instead, the former Fox & Friends host brought it up as a “thought” when she was discussing the actual causes with a business analyst. She also devoted a minute-long commentary about the historically high gas prices during Obama’s presidency, wondering if that was going to be the “new normal.”
Throughout Obama’s time in office, Fox News has continuously railed on him anytime there was a surge in prices at the pump. Generally, they have placed blame for any price hikes on the White House’s energy policy, insisting that America needs to drill for more oil or do more fracking. Of course, the administration’s energy policies have no direct effect on oil or gas prices, especially over a short term. Also, companies drilling for more oil within the United States will do nothing to change the prices in this country as that oil will be sold on the world market.
However, now that oil prices are dropping, Fox News and conservative media have had to figure out a way to spin it negatively for the president. Fox’s Stuart Varney decided earlier this week to say that low gas prices are going to hurt the economy in the long run. Of course, Varney is one of the talking heads that slammed Obama over and over for high gas prices. But, that doesn’t matter. Prices are dropping, so we need to make this seem bad for Democrats. Therefore, it is bad for the economy. That’s the ticket.
Carlson decided that she was going to float a little conspiracy theory that Obama was dropping gas prices to make consumers feel better and elect more Democrats in the midterms. Or something like that. While talking with Fox’s Jo Ling Kent, Carlson said, “The first thing that I thought about is, “Oh, there must be a connection to the midterm elections next week.'”
Below is video of Carlson speaking to Kent, courtesy of Media Matters:
Later on, in a segment called ‘MyTake,’ Carlson discussed how “average Americans” like her were the only ones that seemed to care about high gas prices in the Obama years. She explained that only Fox News is the only media group that’s interested in getting the White House to “drill down” on why gas prices have remained high. Furthermore, she stated that the media hammered President George W. Bush whenever the price went up but have left Obama alone.
Below is the segment, courtesy of Fox News:
Carlson’s intentions with this segment and the other comment to Kent were crystal clear. Her suggestion is that Obama’s policies have kept gas prices high throughout his presidency. However, with midterm elections fast approaching, he’s intervened and dropped them significantly to affect the mood of the electorate and help out Dems. She wants to get that nugget out there in case Democrats hold onto the Senate this Tuesday so she can claim that the White House stole the election. In wingnut world, you have to have your conspiracies ready to go at a moment’s notice.
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