Misinformation in a Time of Renewal

Special to the Star-Telegram

On May 16th BusinessWeek published an article in which I revealed that ethanol has seriously damaged a large number of automobiles right here in the Metroplex. This has actually been happening since last summer; when gasoline prices spiked to over $4 a gallon, apparently one or more gasoline distributors started adding more than the mandatory 10 percent ethanol to make a few extra bucks. One critical point was the fact that repairing the damage ethanol does to an automobile costs between $800 and $1,200, an amount that could devastate a family’s monthly budget. But my research also showed that once the ethanol blend in gasoline rises above 10 percent, for many cars fuel system failures follow quickly.

This is important because the ethanol and corn lobbies are working feverishly to get the government to boost the ethanol content in our gasoline from 10 to 15 percent.

One other piece of information that I uncovered was the number of brand new cars damaged by ethanol. That’s worrisome because, if it’s found that the damaged car’s gasoline contains more than 10 percent ethanol, that voids the warranty.

Worldwide, BusinessWeek’s Web site has 7.4 million unique visitors each month, yet that article stayed in the top five most read, most e-mailed and most discussed stories for almost two weeks. In a business world still trying to find its way out of the current financial mess, my investigative piece on ethanol was actually the most read story on that site for almost a week.

The Credulous Demand the Incredible

Last year, in the first few weeks after my columns ran proving that oil prices were being driven by speculators and not supply and demand, readers flooded my e-mail system with more than 20,000 letters. This time around few chose to respond directly to what I uncovered about ethanol. Instead, my e-mail in-box has been filled with the latest "real" controversy in America: Conservative bloggers have decided that the Obama Administration somehow had a major influence on which Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge dealers had their franchises canceled. The dark underlying thread was that certain dealerships were specifically targeted for destruction because card-carrying Republicans —who had actually donated to the Republican Party or its candidates — owned the franchise.

For the first time ever, I lost faith in the wisdom of the American public. The entire ethanol industry had put my face on its dartboard for exposing how they’re shilling their snake oil, but what unnerved me was the anonymous bloggers’ power to spread the lie that dealerships were shut down for their political views.

Of course, if it had been just the bloggers and their believers spreading that story among each other it would have been one thing. Then the Washington Examiner picked up the story – but fewer than 196,000 individuals visit that Web site, so no big deal. But then U.S. News and World Report picked up on the story. And rather than doing any legitimate journalistic work to either prove or disprove what these bloggers assert, that magazine simply left it an open question that demanded more answers. Please.

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