I’ve been reading through some of my favorite blogs this morning and ran across a story at Euphoric Reality that I just can’t pass up passing along.

As hard as it is to believe, the media has a way of phrasing things so that the facts sound a little different than they really are.

It’s all in the words used.

The propaganda value is for the person who watches a few minutes of the news per day and doesn’t really get into the issues.

It’s all about the sound bite.

Euphoric Reality points to an anecdote in the comment section of an article at Patterico’s Pontifications.

this is one of those “perfect storms” of bias that are so clear, even James Carville would be forced to recognize them.

Here’s one I saw a number of years ago. It begins in the 1980s: Ronald Reagan is president, and we’re ramping up the rhetoric against Iran, which is involved in the Iran-Iraq war.

During the middle of the night (D.C. time), two Iranian MiGs paint a couple of American Navy Tomcats — who promptly splash the MiGs. They duly report up the chain that they engaged and shot down two Iranian fighter jets.

It’s relayed to the Pentaton, from there to the National Security Advisor, who talks to the White House Chief of Staff… and the pair decide not to wake the president, since the incident is over. Instead, they tell him as soon as he comes downstairs in the morning.

When the news heard about this, they went ape: this proves, they shrieked, that Reagan is just a doddering old man, asleep on watch and mentally negligible to begin with, who’s already senile and has delegated away all the presidential authority to low-level flunkies (such as F-14 pilots and RIOs). They had a field day with the “hands-off” president snoozing his way through his second term.

Flash forward about six years. Bill Clinton is president. This time, a pair of Iraqi jets light up a couple of USAF F-16 Fighting Falcons… and swiftly become a duet of smoking holes in the ground. This, too, happens at zero-dark-thirty Washington time.

Again, the various folks in la Casablanca decide (rightly) not to bother waking the president; the incident is over, and there’s nothing he can do about it now in any event. They tell Clinton in the morning.

The news heard about it… and (I know, you’re way ahead of me) they inform the American people in story after story how this proves that Clinton is such a great and well-respected Commander in Chief that he’s not afraid to leave such decisions to the boots on the ground… or in this case, the butts in the cockpit.

A great leader delegates, intones Jennings, Rather, and Brokaw in near unison.

That’s priceless!

Patterico’s Ponifications points to an article at the LA Times. The heading of this story reads, ‘A ratings downer for Fox News’. It goes on to say that Fox news’ ratings have dropped 17%. And oh, by the way, CNN dropped 39% and MSNBC 16% in the same time frame - but that’s just an aside.There is a great discussion going on over there about the issue. I won’t repeat the whole thing, but I hope you’ll go over and add your two cents worth.

I noticed a little blurb on the news the other day that the stock market had reached an all-time high. It was just a little short comment. Then the commentator went on to talk about the horrible crisis of the gas prices (I’ve noticed they have been going back down, at least around here.)

I remember when the stock market went over 10,000 for the first time. Clinton rang the bell at the opening that day, surrounded by his staff, and there were bells, whistles, confetti, and it was all over the news for days and days.

Under Bush, it’s gone much higher than it was ever under Clinton, and it’s just a brief footnote on the news.

The unemployment rate is at an all time low. Again, just a footnote in the news. Bet most people haven’t even heard it.

Interest rates have consistantly been lower than they have been in most of our lifetimes. I have refinanced my house twice in the last 5 years. I now have my house at 5%. That’s a lower interest rate than has been available since I don’t know when.

How much press does that get? How much credit does the Bush administration get for the low interest rates, low unemployment rates, soaring stock market and booming economy. All of this while we are at war.

Speaking of being at war. We haven’t had a terrorist attack on our soil since 9/11.

And yet, I have heard over and over about Bush’s ‘failed Presidency’. I’ve even heard that it will be compared to the Jimmy Carter presidency in the history books! Oh really?

It’s all about how it’s worded.

It’s all about sound bites.

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linked to: The Median Sib, Committees of Correspondence, Is It Just Me?, Third World County, Freedom Watch, Church and State, The Pirate’s Cove, Tor’s Rants, historymike’s musings, Common Folk Using Common Sense, The Path to Endarkenment, Stingray: a blog for salty Christians, Planck’s Constant; 7 Deadly Sins