Here Comes The Media Backpedaling On Gas Prices

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Just five days ago we covered how the media was trying to whip people into a frenzy about gas prices supposedly skyrocketing. Well, that didn’t happen and now there’s some serious backpedaling going on, so we’re here for that.

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Supposedly, the war between Iran and Israel was going to automatically cause the price of oil and in turn gasoline to soar, so everyone was supposed to go out in a panic on June 13 and fill their tanks, which totally wouldn’t have caused any temporary fuel shortages (wink wink).

But people thankfully didn’t fall for the ploy. Here we are on June 18 and according to AAA the national average for regular gas is $3.18, just six cents higher than a week ago.

Rather than just straight up admit the panic was unwarranted, we’re getting some interesting mixed messaging. For example, CNBC ran an article this morning all about how oil industry analysts are now confused because prices didn’t just multiple overnight.

We get that things are uncertain in the Middle East at the moment. Sure, Iran could cause trouble blocking off trade routes, which would delay oil shipments, among other things.

But we’re not fans of catastrophizing everything. It seems like media panic has become a regular thing, especially after it worked so well during covid. We can’t say this empirically, but anecdotally we know a lot of people who are just burned out on constant declarations of existential threats.

Maybe this situation with Iran does spiral out of control, even evolving into a conflict where Russia and China, among other nations, get involved. If that does happen, while gas prices would almost certainly climb, we think most people will be more focused on bigger fish to fry.

Image via Ekaterina Belinskaya/Pexels

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