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Media Has Distorted the Impact of Offshore Drilling on U.S. Energy Supply

The media has helped convince Americans that offshore drilling for oil in the United States will significantly reduce gasoline prices, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Although the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Agency has stated that the benefits from such drilling would be too small to have any significant effect on oil prices, the media has overwhelmingly conveyed the impression that it could. Media coverage of the issue may have influenced public opinion, with a majority now favoring expanded drilling, as proposed by presidential candidate John McCain.

The paper, “Drilling In Environmentally Sensitive Areas: The Role of the Media,” finds that in 267 television news broadcasts, the Energy Information Agency data was cited only once. Also, in 91 percent of the news programs in this sample, there was not even an opposing opinion presented.