A Sound-Bite World

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Monday April 26, 2004 · 3:36 PM PDT

2004/04/26 · 15:36

I just heard a caller on the Randi Rhodes show (I know, love her or hate her) who described himself as a poor truck driver. He said he was freaked when he heard Kerry say that Bush's deal with Bandar to lower gas prices was "outrageous." The caller kept saying, Why is lowering gas prices outrageous? Why does Kerry want higher gas prices?

People hear a piece -- a small piece -- on a topic and immediately draw conclusions about that topic. This isn't news, of course, but I was so struck by the caller truly believing that Kerry was against low gas prices. The same thing is happening with Kerry's military record, and the media is helping the cause. The constant references to Kerry's "delay" in releasing records, the readiness in quoting people like O'Neil, and now the medals bit. Even I almost believe that Kerry should be ashamed of his record.

U.S. News & World Report has what I thought would be a great cover story entitled: "1971: The Way They Were." I was hoping for a head-to-head matchup of the truth, but no. The story is a lot of pictures and prose that make it seem like Kerry was an over-serious leftist on a mission with Jane Fonda, while Bush was a friendly, middle-of-the-road party-boy who everyone liked and who and eventually showed great success and leadership. (The link doesn't have the pictures, but believe me, they both look like military heroes throughout -- in fact, on the cover, Kerry is wearing a suit while Bush is wearing a uniform with "US" on the lapels! Can you imagine?) There is even a reference in the story to Kerry "enjoying a little pot" while Bush was into drinking games.

So the next truck driver may remember that Kerry did drugs and Bush was well liked.

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