BCT Editorial – 8/9/05

This page was last updated on August 9, 2005.

Waking up; Editorial; Beaver County Times; August 9, 2005.

I look at most polls conducted by old/mainstream media outlets as a tool to see how well they are getting their message out. When you report the bad in Iraq out of proportion to the good, it should come as no surprise a poll would show dissatisfaction. Of course, the poll serves double duty. It not only measures the effectiveness of spreading the message, the poll serves as news itself.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“‘If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all the time.’ - Abraham Lincoln

“Since the summer of 2002, President Bush and his minions have been moving heaven and earth to link the war against terrorism with the invasion of Iraq.

“For a time, they were successful - most importantly, from their point of view, by spooking enough Americans via their scare tactics on terrorism and national security to bring their party success in the 2002 congressional elections and the 2004 presidential election.”

[RWC] It’s useful to remember that liberals consider any mention of actual terror attacks as a “scare tactic.”

“But as our greatest American and greatest president noted, you can’t fool all of the people all the time. The most recent Associated Press-Ipsos telephone poll shows Americans are starting to wake up to the mess they have on their hands in Washington.”

[RWC] If the editorial authors had been around during Lincoln’s presidency, I can’t help but wonder if they would have considered him “our greatest American and greatest president.” I could be wrong, but I suspect the authors really believe FDR holds this position.

“The poll of 1,000 Americans found 59 percent believe the nation is on the wrong track; 55 percent disapprove of the way Bush is handling his job; 56 percent disapprove of the way in which he is handling the economy; 60 percent disapprove of his handling of domestic issues like health care, education and the environment; and 63 percent don’t like the way he is approaching Social Security.”

[RWC] Nowhere is the effectiveness of the media to distort the truth more apparent than with respect to the economy. The Times itself is a perfect example. On August 2, 2005, the paper published a story entitled “Region’s jobless rate increased slightly in June.” To date, there has been no story (at least in the online edition) covering the August 5^th announcement of July’s national employment figures, which showed unemployment unchanged at 5.0% and the generation of 207,000 new jobs. The report also showed increasing wages and an increase of productivity. This has been going on for months. I believe it’s no coincidence the bad news was reported but the good news was not. If all you hear/read is bad news, it makes sense a poll will register dissatisfaction.

“However, it is the split that is occurring between the war on terrorism and the invasion of Iraq where the truth about this administration is finally starting to dawn on the American people.

“The poll found that when it comes to Bush’s handling foreign policy issues and the war on terrorism, 47 percent approved, 51 percent disapproved, 1 percent had mixed feelings and zero percent were not sure.

“When it comes to Bush’s handling the situation in Iraq, though, 38 percent approve, 59 percent disapprove, 2 percent had mixed feelings and 1 percent was not sure.”

[RWC] You’ll note the editorial never mentions the fact that about 48% have a built-in disapproval of President Bush because that’s how many voted for someone else.

I showed above that reporting regarding the economy is geared to make it look bad and the poll results show the effect of one-sided reporting. It’s not a stretch to conclude we may be seeing the same effect with regard to the other poll questions.

“One way to read this is that Americans are fed up with what is taking place in Iraq. But another take on this would be that they are finally starting to realize that they were conned into supporting a war the nation didn’t need to fight.”

[RWC] Gee, it couldn’t have anything to do with the media emphasizing the bad, could it?

“Bush has his hardcore supporters. After all, you can fool some of the people all the time. But more and more Americans are realizing that Bush is not the transformational visionary his supporters see him as but a partisan politician who has no qualms about the means he uses to achieve his ends. (One startling aspect of the AP-Ipsos survey was how few of those polled opted for the ‘mixed feelings’ and ‘not sure’ responses.)

[RWC] OK, so if you support current U.S. action in Iraq, the editorial authors believe you’re a fool.

I tend to support President Bush on foreign policy and national security issues, but I never considered him to be a “transformational visionary.” This is another attempt by the Times to make people believe Bush supporters are blind. A politician who’s partisan? Who would have guessed? <g>

You have to ask why the editorial didn’t describe “the means he [President Bush] uses to achieve his ends.” This is an example of what I call a “drive-by” implication.

“As the AP-Ipsos poll shows, Bush has forfeited the confidence of the majority of his fellow citizens. The most likely way for Bush to pull out of this nosedive is for his henchmen and his political and ideological lap dogs in the media to unleash the nationalist and populist tactics that were so successful in 2002 and 2004.”

[RWC] Oh my gosh, the Times believes “the media” is under the control of the Bush administration? Are they serious? This is the same media that presented CBS News personnel with awards even after it was learned they used forged documents in order to smear President Bush.

“It will be interesting to see if the American people can be fooled again.”

[RWC] Yes, it will be interesting to see how many Americans will be fooled by editorials like this one.