Sure looks like those secret spin meetings with media outlets paid off for the White House, eh? Nicholas Fondacaro calls this segment from last night’s CNN broadcast “state run media,” but this doesn’t appear much different than any other Don Lemon segment. Well, except for the operatic treatment, anyway:

State-run media: CNN's Don Lemon does the White House's bidding by praising the price of gas falling just 5 cents. This is what the Biden administration wanted when they brought in media outlets to tell them how to spin the numbers. pic.twitter.com/q5aTak5rfx

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) December 8, 2021

CNN host Don Lemon has been mocked for his crowing about Joe Biden reducing the price of gas – as analysts pointed out that the host was serenading the president over a five cent drop in the price per gallon.

‘Big economic relief for millions of Americans who have been dealing with soaring energy prices,’ declared Lemon on Tuesday night. ‘The price at the pump is finally easing up.’

He pointed to AAA figures showing the price per gallon of $3.35, down from $3.39 last week and $3.42 last month.

The price was, he said, the lowest since October – and then broke into song, trilling: ‘Laaaaa!’

Ahem. That’s almost as bad as this propaganda attempt by the DCCC, which at least is explicitly in the business of blowing smoke up people’s posteriors:

Thanks, @JoeBiden. pic.twitter.com/0iHwTLv7fB

— DCCC (@dccc) December 2, 2021

That prompted a context reminder from Philip Bump at the Washington Post:

So prices dropped by seven cents, or five, or four … and? That’s not exactly “vast economic relief for American families,” despite Lemon’s claim. For a fill-up on a tank of 15 gallons, that works out to about a dollar a week. Since Biden became president, gas prices are up that high per gallon, even with this incremental decline.  Gas prices have risen from $2.336 a gallon in January (or $2.15 in December), both of which were still a dollar less than they are now under Joe Biden. If Lemon wants to sing Biden’s hosannas for creating the seven-cent drop, why isn’t Lemon holding him responsible for a nearly 50% increase in the price of gasoline between January and now?

And why did the price of gasoline drop this week? It’s not because of improved production. Biden’s supporters will claim that his decision to release 50 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve created the “windfall,” but that only accounts for two days’ consumption in the US — and some of that release was intended for overseas consumption anyway. The most likely answer is a drop in futures prices related to the emergence of the Omicron variant — which spooked investors into forecasting an economic downturn — and the drop in demand after the Thanksgiving holiday.

When the price bounces back up, what will Lemon sing then? All By Myself?

In CNN’s vernacular, this isn’t an apple. It may not even be a banana. But it does make Lemon look like a Journolist nut, and CNN look more like the DCCC than a news organization.