On Thursday morning, gas stations throughout the Southeast are … pretty normal. Overnight, lines and shortages seem to have evaporated. Even though regional supplier Colonial Pipeline says that it will be this weekend before the complete supply chain is once again back to normal, just the announcement that the cybersecurity issue had been handled seems to have all but eliminated the crisis sweeping the eastern seaboard … almost as if it never existed.

That’s because, for the most part, it never did. While Colonial’s temporary shutdown of some pipelines limited fuel availability, it likely would have caused few problems except for one thing: panic-buying driven by media stories that made the outage seem apocalyptic. Throughout the region, stations reported selling two or three times their normal daily rate of gasoline. People in the affected region not only rushed to fill up their cars and trucks, but generated an actual run on gas cans that led to people putting gas into every from Tupperware to, well …

It may seem sad that this warning needed to be given, but sadder still is that major media outlets are treating a temporary run on gasoline inspired by media accounts of a ransomware attack on a pipeline company as if it represents both a major failing and major crisis for President Joe Biden. Of course, it should be expected that Fox News would take this opportunity to indulge themselves in a “President Trump is barely out of office and already America is in a fuel crisis” moment.

What’s ugly is how quickly others have joined in. Like The Washington Post.

On Thursday morning, the Post ran with a piece that is not only headlined “Biden administration struggles to limit political damage from gas shortage,” but where the very first sentence describes Biden struggling to “contain an escalating gasoline shortage in the Southeast.” That’s in spite of the fact that:

There never was a gas shortage. The entire affair comes down to a ransomware attack against Colonial Pipeline by a criminal group called “Darkside.” That group is believed to be based in Russia, though their scheme, which holds companies for ransom that is paid off in bitcoin, makes that uncertain. If nothing else, cryptocurrency has been absolutely vital in creating a vast international wave of cyber crime. In any case, no gas went away. The transport of gas to stations was delayed because pipeline capacity was reduced while Colonial either fought their way through the hack or paid off the ransom.
It’s not escalating. Colonial has announced that the issue has been resolved, their pipelines are flowing, and by the weekend trucks should be delivering normal levels of gasoline throughout the region. That announcement appears to have all but ended the wave of panic buying, resulting in gas stations that are already returning to normal operations.
Gas prices are going up because of panic-buying, not a decline in gas production. Despite being undying advocates for capitalism, Republicans appear to be shocked that panic-buying of gas has driven prices in some areas up by a whole quarter as demand outpaced supply. Surprise! That’s how the market works.

As WCNC in Charlotte reports, gas supplies are increasing across the southeast as the situation calms. They also make it explicitly clear: “Remember, the problem is not a lack of gasoline, it’s getting fuel to gas stations quickly enough to keep up with demand.” But they remind everyone that it will take some time to fuel up all the stations that have run dry and the total duration of the “crisis” may be about a week.

So why is the Post, among others, continuing to hype a situation that’s not only been resolved, but was less consequential than the pandemic run on toilet paper?

Because everyone needs a good crisis. It may be Fox News that’s running images of this passing storm in a teacup as “Biden’s gas crisis,” and Republicans in Congress who are bending themselves into knots trying to find a way that this can be blamed on “Joe Biden’s bias against fossil fuels.” But it’s outlets like the Post that are continuing to treat the situation not as a hyped-up effort to turn a momentary blip into a means of derailing the nation’s energy plans, but as a serious challenge to the Biden administration. 

Yes, the White House has undertaken serious efforts to make the nature of what’s going on clear. That’s because an actual gas shortage—which this is not—would have serious consequences. Clarifying the issue is important.

But what the Post is doing here illustrates the biggest problem that still affects The Washington Post, The New York Times, and other major news outlets: Despite all the evidence of the last four years, they still think politics is a game. They’re still writing articles characterizing a hearing where Democrats try to question officials while Republicans use the opportunity to whitewash events on Jan. 6 as “partisan divisions.” They’re still trying to pair the Keystone XL pipeline with what happened this week, painting this week’s “gas shortage” as a political “strategy” rather than what it is—a lie.

There are definitely lessons to be learned from the Colonial Pipeline issue, including how a private company with clearly inadequate security has a near monopoly over fuel transportation across a large area of the country, and how fuel pipelines are a major point of vulnerability in our infrastructure.

And one of the lessons is, unfortunately, that despite everything that’s happened, media is still anxious to report issues in terms of the perception of political points scored, even if that means grossly distorting the underlying issues.