Fox's Stuart Varney complained today that “the establishment media blames the Middle East” for rising gas prices, rather than “President Obama's energy policy.” But an hour later, Fox News became part of the “establishment media,” correctly noting that gas prices are up due to tension in the Middle East, not Obama's policies.

Varney claimed on Fox & Friends that “establishment media is in the tank for this president” because it won't pin gas prices on Obama:

But as the same program later acknowledged, gas prices are rising due to market factors such as tension in the Middle East:

While Fox News tries to bully the media into helping the Romney campaign pin gas prices on Obama, experts across the political spectrum agree that more domestic drilling will not lower gas prices. Our dependence on oil has made the U.S. economy vulnerable to inevitable gas price spikes -- it's a long-term problem that requires long term solutions. But contrary to Fox's claim that Obama has done nothing to respond to this problem, he has made several steps toward reducing our oil dependence: raising fuel economy standards and investing in public transit, electric cars, and alternative fuels.

In fact, the idea that the media should blame Obama's policies for gas price spikes is so misguided that Varney rejected it just last year, when there wasn't a Republican presidential candidate to rescue:

Previously:

O'Reilly Encourages Romney To Falsely Blame Obama For Gas Prices