Bullying Your Own Reporter
Reported by Judy - May 25, 2005
Fox News business correspondant Terry Keenan Wednesday (May 25) let herself be bullied into agreeing with something that she never said during her report on rising gasoline prices.
During The Big Story with John Gibson, Keenan said that gas prices were likely to average $2.20 a gallon over the Memorial Day weekend, with crude oil topping $50 a barrel, and that rising prices usually dampen demand.
Judge Andrew Napolitano asked her if the nation had enough refineries or if oil is waiting to be refined that could ease supplies, and prices. But Keenan said although refineries are at 95 percent of capacity, the supply of sweet crude oil, used for gasoline, is not growing as oil producers are pumping more heavy crude right now, so more refinery capacity would not help the current situation.
Napolitano then tried to get her to say that rising oil prices were good for the stock market. Again, Keenan refused to play along, saying that while oil stocks might go up along with crude oil prices, that is not necessarily good for the market as a whole.
Napolitan then closed the segment, saying, "So more refineries because we're not going to lower the demand."
Keenan hesitated slightly and then said, "Exactly."
Exactly what? Exactly the opposite of what you just said, Terry. Napolitano was trying so hard to make high gas prices look like they're not George Bush's fault (we don't need a sensible energy policy, we just need more refineries). Keenan stuck with the facts for awhile, but then caved in rather than embarrass the stand-in host.
That's why reporters should never fool themselves into thinking they can work at Fox News and still do good journalism. No matter how straight they try to play it, their co-workers with an agenda to push will twist their material into something entirely different.
