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Thursday, September 30, 2004
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If Bush doesn't win, rev up the spin
Beware the after-debate spin following this evening's confrontation between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry, especially if Bush doesn't obviously get the best of it. The Bush-Cheney-GOP noise machine has a history of successfully propagandizing an unhelpful debate outcome.
Media Matters for America has an excellent item on this manipulation of perceptions. For openers:
"Several recent media reports have addressed the role post-debate spin played in the 2000 presidential campaign. On Sept. 29, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz recalled how Republicans succeeded in shifting the media's focus after the first debate; one day before, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman noted that 'after a few days, Mr. Bush's defeat in the debate had been spun into a victory'; and on September 26, TIME magazine correspondents Karen Tumulty and John F. Dickerson wrote: 'It wasn't until a day or two after the first debate in 2000 that the analysis turned to Gore's exaggerated claims and his patronizing sighs. ... A study by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center found nonviewers' opinions of Gore eroding as the coverage of his manner grew more negative.'"
We have to hand it to the Bush, Cheney, Rove, Gillespie and Racicot cabal. They've made conning large segments of the public and press a big, highly efficient operation most of the time.
— By S.W. Anderson
If Bush doesn't win, rev up the spin
Politics:
Beware the after-debate spin following this evening's confrontation between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry, especially if Bush doesn't obviously get the best of it. The Bush-Cheney-GOP noise machine has a history of successfully propagandizing an unhelpful debate outcome.
Media Matters for America has an excellent item on this manipulation of perceptions. For openers:
"Several recent media reports have addressed the role post-debate spin played in the 2000 presidential campaign. On Sept. 29, Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz recalled how Republicans succeeded in shifting the media's focus after the first debate; one day before, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman noted that 'after a few days, Mr. Bush's defeat in the debate had been spun into a victory'; and on September 26, TIME magazine correspondents Karen Tumulty and John F. Dickerson wrote: 'It wasn't until a day or two after the first debate in 2000 that the analysis turned to Gore's exaggerated claims and his patronizing sighs. ... A study by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center found nonviewers' opinions of Gore eroding as the coverage of his manner grew more negative.'"
We have to hand it to the Bush, Cheney, Rove, Gillespie and Racicot cabal. They've made conning large segments of the public and press a big, highly efficient operation most of the time.
— By S.W. Anderson