Gas Prices and Voices at the Pump
I can't remember where I saw it - either on the local news channel, but I'm thinking it was more of a national investigative report, because the visual memories don't seem like any gas station in town, but I remember that a few months ago I saw some sort of tv report about the outrageous gas prices
[as an insert let me just say that in all actuality these gas prices are only outrageous by OUR standards. The rest of the world has been paying these prices for gasoline for ages; we do not seem to realize that we have the cheapest gas prices probably in the world - well, at least cheaper than Europe - but anyway . . . ]
The question of the interviewer was basically, "Why are gas prices so high when the oil and gas companies are reporting record profits?" and the voices at the pump (your regular "average joe/josephines") were saying relatively inane things such as "dang, I'm gonna have to get a second job just to be able to afford this," and "why isn't the President doing something about this?" [another aside: this is stated as if the President, instead of being an elected position, is some sort of benevolent/magnanimous deity who, with a wave of the hand, can sweep away all discomfort and right all the supposed wrongs, but again, whatever . . . ]
and finally there was a person who made a clear, if irritating, statement - she said something along the lines of, "what most people don't understand is that the companies, while reporting profits now, have to look several years into the future to project whether those profits are sustainable, and that is determined by current market fluctuations. Essentially, the state of the world currently will affect next year's influx and could cause interruptions in service then and beyond, so the profits now will be used to offset any possible problems then."
The interviewer (supposedly flabbergasted, but then, I am assuming that this segment was unrehearsed) stammered, "Wow! That's the most thoughtful response we've gotten all day! What do you do for a living?"
And then the woman looked shy and replied, somewhat softly, "I'm a lobbyist."
"For whom?"
Again, a short pause. Then: "The oil and gas industry."
Rehearsed or not - that was priceless. A wonderful bit, not necessarily of journalism, but of commentary about our overall economic culture.
VG
[as an insert let me just say that in all actuality these gas prices are only outrageous by OUR standards. The rest of the world has been paying these prices for gasoline for ages; we do not seem to realize that we have the cheapest gas prices probably in the world - well, at least cheaper than Europe - but anyway . . . ]
The question of the interviewer was basically, "Why are gas prices so high when the oil and gas companies are reporting record profits?" and the voices at the pump (your regular "average joe/josephines") were saying relatively inane things such as "dang, I'm gonna have to get a second job just to be able to afford this," and "why isn't the President doing something about this?" [another aside: this is stated as if the President, instead of being an elected position, is some sort of benevolent/magnanimous deity who, with a wave of the hand, can sweep away all discomfort and right all the supposed wrongs, but again, whatever . . . ]
and finally there was a person who made a clear, if irritating, statement - she said something along the lines of, "what most people don't understand is that the companies, while reporting profits now, have to look several years into the future to project whether those profits are sustainable, and that is determined by current market fluctuations. Essentially, the state of the world currently will affect next year's influx and could cause interruptions in service then and beyond, so the profits now will be used to offset any possible problems then."
The interviewer (supposedly flabbergasted, but then, I am assuming that this segment was unrehearsed) stammered, "Wow! That's the most thoughtful response we've gotten all day! What do you do for a living?"
And then the woman looked shy and replied, somewhat softly, "I'm a lobbyist."
"For whom?"
Again, a short pause. Then: "The oil and gas industry."
Rehearsed or not - that was priceless. A wonderful bit, not necessarily of journalism, but of commentary about our overall economic culture.
VG
posted by Verble Gherulous at 7/14/2006 09:13:00 am
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