Posted 8:49 AM by steve

Let's see just how many ways a Washington Post writer can follow the liberal line in writing a story on the prospects of offshore drilling...

First, start with the obligatory reference to the 1969 oil spill off the California coast because a 39 year old event is much more on the minds of people than the $4 gallon prices they're paying at the pump. And make sure you bury at the end of the references drilling today is much more sophisticated and safer than it was in 1969.

Second, limit your list of those supporting offshore drilling to the traditional liberal bogeymen "President Bush, Republicans in Congress and big oil companies", even though, by your own later acknowledgment, "57 percent of people surveyed were willing to allow drilling in coastal and wilderness areas currently off limits, if it had the potential to reduce high gas prices" and that "some Democrats may be leaning their way".

Third, repeat without challenge the liberal claim that we don't need to be drilling offshore because oil companies aren't producing oil from the leases and properties they already have. Of course, this argument requires one to believe that oil companies can just snap their fingers and start producing oil almost as soon they're awarded the right to drill on a property. But even the reporter knows this isn't the case, as evidenced by his making sure to make the point a number of paragraphs earlier that starting to drill offshore won't have an immediate impact on production given the length of time it takes to bring a site on line.

Fourth, make sure you only quote sources and statistics that bolster your claims. Cite only those who claim that opening up the coast to drilling won't have an immediate impact on prices, don't cite anybody who disagrees. Make sure you mention that 16,302 barrels of oil were lost during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita back in 2005. Don't mention (from the same government report that "far more oil enters the ocean from natural, underwater seeps than from offshore production platforms".