Things are really, really bad in wingnut land. Bush is in the dumps, on the run, being called to account. Republican leadership on the Hill has imploded in the face of looming criminal indictments for so many different people that we need a chart to keep track of it all. And the Boy Emperor's loyal supporters at Red State are having a bad time, too. Bad enough to make them cry, sobbing and banging their fists on the floor.
You think I'm kidding. You think, no way it's that bad. How bad could it be? So bad that a front-page poster is mad at the Associated Press for (NO, I'm not kidding) DOING A POLL THAT ASKED ABOUT GEORGE W. BUSH'S HONESTY. And then having the nerve (the nerve of these people!) to (gasp!) report the results.
The horror, the horror! Let's see what has Nick Danger so exercised after the flip.
Fresh on the heels of the White House taking to task certain members of the press and the Democratic Party for "rewriting history" and for being otherwise fanciful in their criticisms of the President and his policies, the Associated Press has fired back with one of its patented "AP-Ipsos polls," this one headlined "Most Americans Say Bush Not Honest". By this device the AP hopes to lure readers into believing
it is someone other than the AP itself making this statement.
If the White House hoped to spark a war with the media, it appears to have succeeded. That the AP would even commission a poll asking such a thing begs the question of what they were after. We know what they were after: another attack on the Administration, and an especially scurrilous one at that. And it is clear that they planned this one before the recent White House comments. I do not know whether Associated Press "writer" Will Lester has a White House press credential. If do know that if I worked there, he would not have one tomorrow. Lester's article is manufactured news - a hit piece - designed and commissioned as another hammer to throw at an Administration that the Associated Press hates... because virtually everyone in the Associated Press is a Democrat.
This must stop. If a self-governing people cannot rely on those entrusted to report the news to report it, instead of manufacturing it, twisting it, distorting it, and rewriting it to promote their own personal political agendas, then the Republic itself is in peril. If people can't trust the news to be news, then how are they to make intelligent decisions at the ballot box?
These are questions the White House must now ask, and forcefully. Yes, the press is free to write what it will. But the public is free to trust them or not; to buy their publications or not; to support their advertisers, or not.
The only weapon the public has to reclaim "the news" from those who have taken it hostage and now use their platform as "journalists' to promote their own agendas and that of the political party they favor, is to stop buying the product. This means canceling the newspaper, turning off the television news, and turning to the Internet's myriad sources for information on current events. The Professional Distorters need to hear loud and clear that the public is tired of being fed a stead diet of slanted reporting designed to favor one side.
It does not matter whether the reporters themselves, or those who manage them, feel that this is the case. They have been in denial on this subject for so long that we could hardly expect them to change now. What will get their attention is a sharp, steep drop in their circulations and their ratings.
Most efforts of this sort fail. Most efforts of this sort are not led by a President talking to his base. This President could make it happen. And he should. His constituents are angry enough. The press has never been more blatant about what they are doing. The time is ripe to give the press in this country a good whack upside the head.
If it is war the media want, it is war the White House should give them. The troops are ready.
Whoa. I'm a little bit lightheaded after that monomaniacal rant, so let's take a deep breath and think about this. The AP did a poll. Among the many questions it asked in that poll was this:
Now I'm going to read you some words that might be used to describe a person. As I read each word, please tell me whether you think the word describes George W. Bush or not.
The words asked were, in order, stubborn, decisive, strong, likeable, ethical and (OMG!) honest. Pretty neutral, right? Some good words, some not so good words. All asked before (except ethical, see below), no news here.
The results were as follows:
stubborn 82-17 (75-24 in 9/04)
decisive 57-40 (75-24 in 9/04)
strong 54-46 (65-34 in 1/05)
likeable 52-47 (66-33 in 1/05)
ethical 47-51 (no prior result)
honest 42-57 (53-45 in 1/05)
What does this tell you? It tells me, loud and clear and with a bullhorn, that Americans no longer trust George W. Bush, less than a year after reelecting him on the basis of these very same qualities.
What does this tell Nick Danger? That the AP must stop "manufacturing news," that its reporters should have their media credentials pulled, and that George W. Bush, in the face of declining support, should declare holy war on the media, and that Nick and his diapered, thumb-sucking friends will be right behind him.
Wow. A call to political and media jihad because . . . . . well, because . . . . . the Associated Press had the nerve to do a poll, and then to . . . . . wait for it . . . . . it's coming . . . . REPORT THE RESULTS!!!!!!!!! And they were bad for Bush.
To the ramparts, Republicans! Don your diapers, pull out your pacifiers, grab a rattle, and head for battle! Our battle cry is "waaaaaaaaa, waaaaaaaaaaaa, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Why do the American people hate America? Waaaaaaaa."
Nick, I got some advice for you. Get some meds, get some help, and pull yourself together. Your Emperor has no clothes. Not because of the media, or the Democrats, or anyone else other than himself and the unethical, dishonest, lying cabal that has, on both foreign and domestic policy, led this country down a path that it will now take a generation or more to recover from. I know it's hard to accept, but your brand of crass, rank, cash and carry politics is OVER. You had a nice run, you and your friends carried off as much of the furniture, china and jewelry as you could, but it's OVER. We'll take it from here, Nick -- we'll clean up the dirt and the vomit and the food and the trash, no problem. Just grab your diaper and your pacifier and head on home for a nice, long nap.
Oh, just one thing more. You want to start that holy war? I wouldn't advise it -- what you've essentially said, dickbrain, is that you want to declare war on the American people you claim to represent, along with anyone who reports on the opinions of Americans that don't agree with your fucked up opinions. How much more fucked up can one person get? But if you feel absolutely compelled to start that war I got three words for you that I know from experience that you will understand. You don't understand much, but I bet you'll understand this.
Bring it on.
