Exhibit A: Journalists Are Good at Journalism; Business, Maybe Not

Michael Giberson takes the Wall Street Journal to school for this article about gasoline and crude prices. The "gasoline prices aren't falling as fast as the price of crude" story is hardly breaking new ground, but this time it's not even valid as a storyline:

The mystery of the just-down-13-percent gasoline prices is almost entirely created by trying to treat the NYMEX price as the relevant benchmark, but it isn’t. (As noted here in February.) Currently the Brent price is a better indicator of the world oil market price for crude oil. Our story here, then, is that world oil prices have dropped 18 percent since April while average gasoline prices dropped 13 percent. Hardly a different warranting a headline.

The reporter fully recognizes this point, as he explains, “gasoline prices on the East Coast and even in the Gulf Coast track the price of Brent crude, which analysts view as a better indicator of global prices than Nymex. While Nymex futures are down 30% since April 29, Brent is down 18%.” And the story is accompanied by a graphic, above, which graphically illustrates the point that Brent seems to be the relevant reference point.

So why the struggle to cast this story about gasoline prices that are not falling fast enough?

The whole thing reminds me of something a professor told us often: "Remember, the guys who write for the WSJ are more likely to be experts at journalism than at business. Don't be too ready to learn about your industry from a journalism major."

Yep.