Free Market of Ideas?

Several recent items struck me as prime examples of "Ridiculous Media Oversimplification of a Complex Issue that Becomes Conventional Wisdom in the Face of Evidence to the Contrary". I know I've got to come up with a catchier name for this, but that will come later...

• Oil is down to below $60 a barrel. When gas was $4.29 a gallon and oil was $140 a barrel, the evil oil companies were reaping obscene profits. The popular theory was that a handful the "big oil" executives meeting in a smoke-filled room in Dubai three years ago to fix prices at levels so they could use some of their obscene profits to buy another Gulfstream for the house in Aspen. With prices down, they must have all gotten together again and decided that profits were no longer important, simultaneously coming to their senses and decided to emulate Mother Theresa. Or maybe supply is up and demand is down - wait that's crazy talk!


• The latest nonsense: apparently oil and gas prices dropping is a proof positive that the economy is tanking. I'm not sure which economist developed the theory that "the economy" and "gas and oil prices" have a direct positive relationship. By extension then, last year when prices were at historic highs the economy must have also been at an all-time high. So why were Hillary and Obama constantly ranting about how bad the ''Bush Economy" was last year during the primaries? Hmmm...


• Global Warming is causing more and more violent hurricanes. This assertion was second only to the Law of Gravity for absolute irrefutable laws of science after the Katrina hurricane season. Funny how I haven't heard any "global cooling" theories spring up since we've had some of the least active hurricane seasons on record since

And so it goes that Groupthink rules the American information age. I continue to be amazed that as more and more media and information outlets arise, there are fewer and fewer dissenting opinions presented. There is a rush to make unsubstantiated grand proclamations as iron-clad fact, and to the the first to do so. Presenting an accurate picture of a complex issue is completely unimportant - all that matters is providing and uninformed opinion first. The result is that each outlet just imitates all the others in a rush to be the first to be wrong to the exactly the same degree as the rest.