Fake News On FOX News

If blue eggs are your thing, he's your guy.

Yesterday morning I switched on FOX News (the only legitimate news channel IMHO) in the middle of a report on the state of the economy. A woman who I assumed was an expert in the field was talking about the soaring price of eggs. Apparently they are now sky-high, with many if not most restaurants charging an extra fifty cents for any dish that contains eggs, for reasons I never quite understood. Then she held up a box of eggs, looked squarely into the camera and said, "A dozen eggs now costs ten dollars in the U.S."

I was stunned. Really? Since we buy our eggs from a friend who raises chickens and pay him six bucks a dozen, I was out of touch with store prices. So the ex-reporter lurking inside me decided to check it out locally. After reading the following on Wikipedia I figured Shaw's, just a mile from my house, would offer a perfect reflection of the national egg scene:

"Shaw's and Star Market are two American supermarket chains under united management based in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts, employing about 30,000 associates in 150 total stores; 129 stores are operated under the Shaw's banner in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, while Star Market operates 21 stores in Massachusetts, most of which are in or near Boston." 

I found rows and rows of eggs, at least 20 different brands and types. A very few, all white eggs with nothing special going on, were $4.99 per dozen. Most of the rest, all brown eggs, cost $5.99 per dozen while a few from free-range, all-happy chickens were $6.99. There was one brand for $7.99. The most expensive I could find was a dozen containing all-natural, free-range, organic eggs of different colors -- brown, pale blue and white -- for $9.00. (Who needs blue eggs? You don't eat the shells.)

That economist should have said eggs cost ten bucks except in New England. So yes, sometimes there is fake news on FOX.