If I were in a position of power and wanted to control the news media... here's what I'd do. I would occasionally let slip a terribly damning story about my administration, but only if I could hold back some irrefutable proof that the story was really false.
This way, if a news organization were to latch onto it, I could simply let it build up steam and then release my "antedote" of truth... thus, clearing up any bad kharma and making that segment of the news media look foolish.
Do this a few times and eventually the reporters and editors will be terribly leary of ever saying anything bad about me at all. Once this meme is in place... I and my administration are now free to do just about anything we want, since there won't be anyone left to question our actions (since they're all afraid of getting it wrong... again).
On top of all this, and in this atmosphere of opposition via internet blogs (that would be us)... every liberal and their brother would take the original damning story as gospel and, in the end, they all end up labelled as the "tin-foil-hat crowd". (A double plus for ol' Rover).
I can only think of two such incidents where the current administration has done something like this, but I'm sure there are more.
First, there was Dan Rather and his scoop about the shrub's military record. That one went off perfectly and, as we're all aware... was successful in actually getting rid of Dan altogether.
Now, we have this whole Newsweek / Desecration story that seems to be all the rage today. To me, it sure seems like the same play... different act. No wonder the news media seems petrified to dare mention that perhaps the empiror might not be wearing any clothes.
I'm sure there are other news stories that fit this mold. Can anyone point any out?