(Still More) ChronBlog adventures in group identification.

Good News for Car Companies: Americans willing to Pay More for Fuel Efficient Cars. Virginia Pommerening, ChronBlog

A study conducted by the Consumer Federation of America finds that American consumers prefer more fuel efficient cars and are willing to pay a higher sticker price for those automobiles.
For years the auto industry was not concerned with fuel efficient cars.  Consistent gas prices led to stagnation in fuel efficiency, and the extreme fluctuations in gas prices over the last decade have changed the focus of both the producers and consumers.
According to the report, titled “A Key Step to Ending America’s Oil Addiction: Policymakers, Consumers and Automakers are Shifting New Vehicles to Higher Fuel Economy,”fuel efficiency is an “economy improvement” in the car.

Not mentioned in this article are the political leanings of the CFA. Considering this is a group who counts among its members Ralph Nadar and Texas Watch (one of the most progressive advocacy groups within the State) WHO is behind the study is, in this case, very important.

But the Penn State student writing for ChronBlog doesn't see it that way, and doesn't feel the need to inform readers of the group's ideological slant.  One would imagine that a report of this type were proffered up by the conservative Heritage Foundation Ms. Pommerening would find this of some import to the main story.

Three boos here:

1. To Ms. Pommerening and/or the Penn State School of Journalism.  For either not teaching the importance of correct identification or not learning said lesson.  I'm not sure which is the case, but it obviously hasn't stuck.

2. To ChronBlog's editors, for not catching this and letting this press release described as a news story run in the first place.

3. To ChronBlog, for allowing an important energy piece to be handled by an obviously not ready for prime time Summer intern with little or no supervision.

One last thing:  What this doesn't mean is that there is something inherently BAD about fuel efficient cars.  I LIKE my cars to be fuel efficient and am willing to pay a little bit more for a car that gets better gas mileage, but that doesn't mean that I want the government to make the choice for the free market, or that I'm somehow "addicted" to oil.  Those are all political statements and the political leanings of the group making them should have been identified.