Fox News exploited the violent turmoil in Iraq to baselessly lay blame for increasing gasoline and oil prices at the feet of President Obama. Fox hosts cited Obama's alleged “policy mistakes” in Iraq as the impetus for the rising cost of petroleum products, continuing a long pattern of attacking Obama over the price of gasoline while ignoring the fact that global market trends are largely out of the president's control.

On the June 13 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade and Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney discussed the impact of the recent turmoil in Iraq on the global oil market. Varney used the opportunity to attack President Obama for the withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraq from 2009 through 2011:

VARNEY: Let me make this very clear, we are all paying for the president's policy mistakes. The retreat in Iraq, the chaos in Iraq, will be paid for by us at the pump.

The withdrawal of American troops from Iraq was completed on December 18, 2011. According to data from the United States Energy Information Agency (EIA), the market prices of crude oil and refined gasoline have fluctuated since that time, but the withdrawal itself spurred no appreciable price corrections. Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, overlaying the prices for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil with inflation adjusted prices for gasoline, confirm that the withdrawal had no lasting impact on market prices:

Reputable market analysts agree that the outbreak of violence in Iraq -- the world's eighth largest oil producer -- is driving market speculation and investment in petroleum futures. This in turn has resulted in a slight, but noticeable increase in global crude oil market prices during the past several days. Varney is correct in noting that instability in Iraq is impacting global oil prices, but his analysis veered into well-worn Fox News paranoia when he used that fact to pin the blame for rising prices on President Obama.

Fox has a storied history of blaming this president for rising oil and gasoline prices.

In 2008, Fox personalities defended President Bush against unsubstantiated charges that the White House was somehow responsible for a rise of oil and gasoline prices, frequently citing the fact that petroleum is part of a global commodity market whose prices are affected by events beyond the United States' control. However, since taking office in 2009, President Obama has faced relentless attacks from Fox News and its allies bent on blaming his administration for both cyclical market trends and one-time price spikes. Here's Fox News in 2008:

Media Matters research reveals considerable media misinformation, often emanating from Fox News, regarding the oil and gasoline markets. Blaming current short-term trends in the global oil market on the Obama administration's decision to adhere to a withdrawal timeline in Iraq nearly three years ago represents a new wrinkle if Fox's time honored deception.