Gas Price Hype Rising With 'No End in Sight'

April 22nd, 2008 5:48 PM

NewsBusters.org | AP photo of a gas marqueeAnd here we go again. I'm all for catchy headlines, but CNN has to be a bit more responsible with its choices when reporting on gasoline prices.

"Gas prices climbing with no end in sight," reads a hyperbolic April 22 CNN.com headline. "No end in sight" might make for great left-wing populist rhetoric, but it's hardly balanced economic reporting.

Indeed, the only thing to justify the "no end" language was citing gasoline analyst Trilby Lundberg as saying "she does not expect the prices to go down anytime soon," hardly a dire "no end in sight" forecast that conjures up notions of never-ending price increases rather than an eventual price plateau.

What's more, as the media are wont to do, CNN included an AP photo of a gas station marquee complete with gas prices well above the current national average of $3.50-a-gallon. CNN's photo contained a regular unleaded gas price clocking in at 51 cents above that average, a whopping 14.6 percent off the mark.

AP Photo via CNN.com.