Ages ago I wrote a wee piece about price fixing in the daily oil market and how a publisher called Platts (part of McGraw Hill) had been accused of market manipulation. The independent trade media, I said then, is a stronger and better referee of dodgy dealing than people might imagine.
Well, the sniffer dogs are back, this time dressed as European Commission investigators. They have raided several oil firms including Royal Dutch Shell, BP and others. All are accused of price rigging on uncannily similar lines to bankers and the Libor scandal.
Platts is keen to defend its reputation as an honest custodian and broker of information.
It’s a complicated tale and one that requires the intellectual rigour of expert journalists to unravel the many intricate tangles.
If jiggery-pokery is found to have taken place regarding oil prices – unlike with Libor, where the effect on individuals is difficult to quantify – then this could go some way to explaining why it costs us so much to fuel our cars and heat our houses.
What makes this story ironic is that it comes in the same week that Bloomberg is accused of tapping into the information terminals it rents to banks and other finance houses for $20,000 per year (and without which those businesses could not function) to source stories for its news operations.
Both stories demonstrate, with perfect clarity, why journalists and their organs must, visibly and actually, have no connections with those whom they cover. Cosying up is the first step on the straight road to corruption. Amidst all the ‘Hugh Grant’s feelings were hurt’ hoo-hah, that is, surely, the key truth to be learned from what was exposed by the Leveson inquiry.
