Fox ‘Hard News’ Anchor Basically Writes Anti-Biden Press Release for Oil Industry Flack Live On the Air
Fox News “hard news” anchor Sandra Smith took Fox News’ oil industry shilling to 11 when she basically composed an anti-Biden press release live on the air for energy flack Claire Chase.
President Joe Biden and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki have made a regular habit of smacking around oil industry talking points — often fed to them by Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy — like those three women smacked around Kurt Russell at the end of Death Proof.
Psaki, in particular, is fond of pointing out the over 9,000 unused oil permits that have already been approved and telling reporters like Doocy to go ahead and ask the oil companies why they’re not drilling.
And so it was that Chase ended up a guest on Tuesday’s edition of Fox News’ America Reports, where Smith played clips of Psaki and Biden, and then led the oil flack through her talking points like a sherpa with a GPS and a Mapquest printout, just in case.
Now, a lot of what went on in this segment is a matter of taste — if you’re inclined to be generous about Fox’s alleged separation of “hard news” and “opinion,” or you don’t mind a little bit of light shilling, it was pretty standard stuff.
The oil flack gave pretty terrible answers that basically amounted to “How can we possibly drill if there are going to be, like, rules against poisoning everything and like, fines and stuff if we break them? How is that even fair?”
Don’t take my word for it, watch the whole thing. Like Smith’s intro for Chase, which included her company name and her family’s extensive oil lease holdings in New Mexico — but did not include the fact that Chase was a Republican candidate for Congress who got her ass handed to her in the primary. Imagine if CNN had failed to identify a Democrat. Greg Gutfeld and Jesse Watters would have a baby live on the set of The Five.
She told Smith that “there’s no reason then for us to want to really ramp up in a political environment that is going to try to then turn around and shut us down or find us a million, you know, millions upon millions of dollars.”
Or, and just hear me out, they could like not violate the law or stop poisoning the environment.
What really earned Smith a chef’s kiss was when she quite skillfully composed an oil industry press release that Chase merely had to verbally sign:
MS. SMITH: Let me just finish with this point, because one day in the briefing room, Jen Psaki, when she was touting those 9,000 untapped leases, she said, back to our one of our reporters, call them, ask them why they’re not tapping. Is it fair, based on everything you just told us, to say the reason why you’re sitting on these leases and not tapping them, even though oil looks very profitable for you at $130.00 a barrel, is because there’s too much risk involved and uncertainty under this administration? Is that fair?
MS. CHASE: That is one hundred percent fair. I think we really need to know that once we start drilling for oil, that we’re going to be able to continue to produce that without getting fined or without new rules and regulations coming down on us. Yeah, we really do an incredible job of protecting the environment and protecting air and water. And it’s much better than anywhere else in the world. So why we’re not relying on American energy is really just beyond me.
I know what you’re thinking, maybe Chase deserves recognition for saying, in the same breath, that they can’t risk being fined to death for poisoning the Earth, and that’s why they won’t drill even though they’re the best at not poisoning the Earth, and there is merit to that.
But Chase doesn’t pretend to be a “hard news” anchor at a “real” “news” network.
Watch above via Fox News.
Correction: A previous version of this post stated the show Sandra Smith anchored is America’s Newsroom. It has been corrected to note the show is America Reports.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
