To my counterparts at Yahoo Finance, BusinessWeek, the Wall Street Journal, et al:

Our readers have pointed out a problem with our hurricane coverage with respect to gasoline prices. Your readers no doubt have made the same point. I think it's time we band together to fix the problem.

The issue is rising gas prices. When Hurricane Katrina knocked out pipelines and refineries in the Gulf, prices at the pump jumped above $3 a gallon. Now, with Hurricane Rita threatening refinery capacity -- about 25 percent of the nation's total -- a spike above $5 a gallon is possible.

So I propose that we stop reporting this stuff.

At CNNMoney.com, we quoted a couple of analysts pointing out the threat from Rita and got hit with a slew of hate mail. Some examples ...

"You (people) are becoming accessories to higher energy prices by consistently publishing stories of gloom and doom generated by these so-called analysts. You people are so easily manipulated. By publishing these $5 a gallon gasoline pieces, you probably bumped the price up 25 cents yourselves. You idiots." -- Lyn K.

"People need to quit printing or advertising predictions like these ... Prints like these give the oil companies excuses to jack up prices and screw the consumer while they laugh all the way to the bank." -- Jeremy B.

I think the folks have got a point. Energy companies are just dying for the chance to act in concert to jack up prices, whether they really need to or not.

And certainly by raising the prospect of higher prices, we are making it easier for them to do it, right? We are, after all, the all-powerful Media and are never wrong.

But there's a good argument that prices won't go up in the wake of Hurricane Rita. Spurred by Katrina-scarred politicians, the government and oil companies are making really, really careful preparations this time around. And a lot of foreign gasoline is on its way to our shores, thanks to environmental restrictions being temporarily lifted. So gasoline disruptions could be muted.

Or Rita could crunch up a bunch of refineries and make less gas available and consequently drive up prices, like the experts said.

Now some of you may say we have an obligation to warn people about potential problems, whether they want to hear it or not. Others may argue that panic stories are how we drive business. And still a few of you may be hesitant to betray the media's conspiracy.

Hey, what people don't know won't hurt them, right? Who needs to know about the possibility of higher gas prices? And as for panic stories driving traffic ... oh well, you got me there. I love catastrophes. After all, that's why people go into journalism: not to inform or educate or make the world a better place ... but to garner ratings and page views.

But we're talking gas here. So let's sacrifice a little.

And we in the media already get accused of conspiring with each other all the time so if we come out of the closet now, so to speak, what's the big deal? (Okay, some of you think I secretly lust to rip out your guts and bury you in the graveyard of defunct news sites ... but honestly, I'm on board with the cabal program).

If we don't report it, it won't happen ... right?

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Allen Wastler is Managing Editor of CNNMoney.com and appears weekends on CNN's "In the Money." He can be e-mailed at wastlerswanderings@cnn.com.