Sunday, May 14, 2006
Newsweek Poll Awards the Media an "A" for Effort!
Well, Newsweek's just completed a new poll, which is basically a sort of "report card" for the media, measuring how well they've done their job in propagandizing an NSA intervention that's not new, not illegal, and not intrusive into private lives.
Now, the first poll, done by the WashingtonPost, proved that most Americans didn't care -- but that was before the major media had a few days to really, really hammer in their own spin.
And, behold!:
And you know, they're still not getting the NSA surveillance story right. The new NSA issue is still being referred to as "domestic phone monitoring," which is not accurate, although it does bring up all kinds of horrifying fun images of the government listening into your calls to the local PTA. It's not domestic phone monitoring; NSA collects phone numbers of people who call the phone numbers of known terrorists. Verizon collects phone numbers as well -- but since Bush doesn't run Verizon, nobody cares.
Oh, and by the way -- it also marks the sudden end of yet another intervention against terrorism. Al Quada's brutal, but not stupid.
The new Newsweek poll just reflects how there's a long, long list of things that reporters, who should know better, just refuse to report accurately.
Here's a good starting point: Bush wasn't AWOL; Dan Rather tried to pass off forged documents to millions of Americans. The SOTU statement about yellowcake from Niger wasn't inaccurate, the Brits still stand by their intel. Valerie Plame was not an undercover agent outted by Karl Rove for political reasons -- the Russians outted her in the nineties. The DPW scandal involved "steveadorage" -- not "taking over American ports." The previous NSA "domestic wiretapping" was neither domestic, nor wiretapping. The "immigration issue" isn't "immigration" -- it's "illegal immigration." Remember the phoney "flush the Koran" story, which involved neither flushing nor the Koran, but was written by Michael Isikoff who still inexplicably has a job?
And, by the way, since every mainstream news outlet is so hot to speak "truth to power" -- just how many US media outlets published those Danish Cartoons, again?
The Newsweek article also takes the opportunity to state: Iraq continues to be the biggest drain on the president’s popularity: 86 percent of Americans say the Iraq situation, coupled with new information about the decision to go to war, have negatively influenced their view of the president.
Well, excuse me, but the latest information is the ongoing translation of Saddam's pre-war documents, being translated by a Lebanese American. You can find his translations here, and the information is chilling. Saddam had ties with Al Quada, and there's concrete evidence of WMD's. But, I guess the real latest evidence isn't of much interest to Newsweek editors, in their rush to speak "truth to power," and dress-up like Woodward and Bernstein.
But, propaganda works, doesn't it. You hammer the American people long enough, and hard enough with trumped up scandals, and through repetition, you can get most of us to believe anything.
So, pat yourselves on the back, guys -- and make sure to save one of those bottles of champagne. Because when there's another attack on our soil, you'll get to blame Bush for it as well.
Won't that be a hoot?
StetsonTip BlueCrabBoulevard, where there's an interesting breakdown how how the Newsweek Poll is flawed to the tune of Biblical proportions.
(cartoon from the geniuses at Cox&Forkum, reprinted in the Detroit Free Press) ¶ 7:30 AM
Well, Newsweek's just completed a new poll, which is basically a sort of "report card" for the media, measuring how well they've done their job in propagandizing an NSA intervention that's not new, not illegal, and not intrusive into private lives.
Now, the first poll, done by the WashingtonPost, proved that most Americans didn't care -- but that was before the major media had a few days to really, really hammer in their own spin.
And, behold!:
Newsweek: May 13, 2006 - Has the Bush administration gone too far in expanding the powers of the President to fight terrorism? Yes, say a majority of Americans ... According to the latest NEWSWEEK poll, 53 percent of Americans think the NSA’s surveillance program “goes too far in invading people’s privacy,” while 41 percent see it as a necessary tool to combat terrorism.Great job, guys! Y'all should all clink your glasses of champagne together at the next elite Beltway cocktail party for a job well done.
And you know, they're still not getting the NSA surveillance story right. The new NSA issue is still being referred to as "domestic phone monitoring," which is not accurate, although it does bring up all kinds of horrifying fun images of the government listening into your calls to the local PTA. It's not domestic phone monitoring; NSA collects phone numbers of people who call the phone numbers of known terrorists. Verizon collects phone numbers as well -- but since Bush doesn't run Verizon, nobody cares.
Oh, and by the way -- it also marks the sudden end of yet another intervention against terrorism. Al Quada's brutal, but not stupid.
The new Newsweek poll just reflects how there's a long, long list of things that reporters, who should know better, just refuse to report accurately.
Here's a good starting point: Bush wasn't AWOL; Dan Rather tried to pass off forged documents to millions of Americans. The SOTU statement about yellowcake from Niger wasn't inaccurate, the Brits still stand by their intel. Valerie Plame was not an undercover agent outted by Karl Rove for political reasons -- the Russians outted her in the nineties. The DPW scandal involved "steveadorage" -- not "taking over American ports." The previous NSA "domestic wiretapping" was neither domestic, nor wiretapping. The "immigration issue" isn't "immigration" -- it's "illegal immigration." Remember the phoney "flush the Koran" story, which involved neither flushing nor the Koran, but was written by Michael Isikoff who still inexplicably has a job?
And, by the way, since every mainstream news outlet is so hot to speak "truth to power" -- just how many US media outlets published those Danish Cartoons, again?
The Newsweek article also takes the opportunity to state: Iraq continues to be the biggest drain on the president’s popularity: 86 percent of Americans say the Iraq situation, coupled with new information about the decision to go to war, have negatively influenced their view of the president.
Well, excuse me, but the latest information is the ongoing translation of Saddam's pre-war documents, being translated by a Lebanese American. You can find his translations here, and the information is chilling. Saddam had ties with Al Quada, and there's concrete evidence of WMD's. But, I guess the real latest evidence isn't of much interest to Newsweek editors, in their rush to speak "truth to power," and dress-up like Woodward and Bernstein.
But, propaganda works, doesn't it. You hammer the American people long enough, and hard enough with trumped up scandals, and through repetition, you can get most of us to believe anything.
So, pat yourselves on the back, guys -- and make sure to save one of those bottles of champagne. Because when there's another attack on our soil, you'll get to blame Bush for it as well.
Won't that be a hoot?
StetsonTip BlueCrabBoulevard, where there's an interesting breakdown how how the Newsweek Poll is flawed to the tune of Biblical proportions.
(cartoon from the geniuses at Cox&Forkum, reprinted in the Detroit Free Press) ¶ 7:30 AM
