The Occasional Observer

Pres. Obama is set to announce plans to lift bans on offshore oil drilling. This is the MSNBC coverage. If you read the short article, you'll notice it has no negative comments.

Now, one has to wonder if the same proposal by previous Pres. Bush would also have resulted in a neutral article from MSNBC.

As it turns out, fortunately one does not have to wonder--said article from 2008 actually exists here. Let's look at a few excerpts:

Democrat Barack Obama has opposed the idea...

"If offshore drilling would provide short-term relief at the pump or a long-term strategy for energy independence, it would be worthy of our consideration, regardless of the risks," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement. "But most experts, even within the Bush administration, concede it would do neither. It would merely prolong the failed energy policies we have seen from Washington for thirty years."

"Once again, the oilman in the White House is echoing the demands of Big Oil," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "The Bush plan is a hoax. It will neither reduce gas prices nor increase energy independence."

"This proposal is something you'd expect from an oil company CEO, not the president of the United States," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Environment Committee.

Why doesn't MSNBC's new article on Obama's plan point out his hypocrisy? Why don't they include the same raft of negative quotes that they found with ease when covering Bush's proposal? Curious.

Curious coverage indeed.