Media Ignores Russia's Influence on Oil Prices

Did you hear this weekend about that giant country that invaded the other country? The business media apparently haven't -- or at least they don't think it's worth a mention.

But we'll get to their oily oversight in a moment. First, a review, because it's all part of a pattern.

When the oil market was rising, we saw the business media ignore reality and good reason to frame the market as something that would go up forever. Who could forget what The Business Press Maven back in May called the dumbest headline he had seen in his entire misspent life: "Oil Hits $129, Heads for $130."

They Just Don't Get Oil!

That thought, as it were, contained the implicit assumption that the market would hit $130 before $128 -- as if a 1-point move meant anything.

As if that was not bad enough, we soon got articles leading with the flashy claim that oil would hit $200 a barrel without any supporting evidence in the text that followed.

Well, lest you think that the business media only take leave of their senses when the oil market is rising, look what it did this weekend as it was falling. And remember: The business media follows the crowd even as it pushes the movement of the crowd further in the same direction.

Well, crowd, oil has moved in a different direction of late. It's fallen at the pumps for something like two dozen straight days, and the price of a barrel of crude could now be framed as something like "115, Heading to 114."