At the "tender" age of 59 and a registered Republican since I turned 21, no one.......absolutely NO ONE has ever asked me to participate in a TV or Newspaper poll. Hmmm, I wonder why?

To quote the eminent Herself, she admonishes us to read carefully the way the leftmedia reports the events of the day. She tells us that when you see the words “As everybody knows…” in reality they don’t. When you see “It is widely reported…”, it isn’t. The term “It is common knowledge that…” is neither.

The problem is that the Joe Six-pack lemmings of our great country are quick to believe most any kind of bovine or equine scatology that comes from the over priced on-air and print talent who are quick to point out all the warts an all of America and our current administration but when the spotlight is turned on them they are quicker to tell us to ignore the man behind the curtain. (Whew!)

The media use skewed phrasing of questions (of the “do you still beat your wife” tack) to garner popular support for the folderol that they are trying to have us believe. The use of “widely respected” “experts” as Noam Chomsky, Cindy Sheehan et. al. to bolster their case is not unlike a scientific poll conducted to learn what choir members think about prayer in church.

Adding to the scientific specificity they use “facts” to the nth degree. “79.7% of all Welsh part-time belly dancers agree that we should leave Iraq right after lunch.” Well, there is a voting bloc that you do not want to mess with! The going to a point after the decimal is the mathematical equivalent of piling on. Besides, 80% sounds contrived.

Ann is correct when she stated that the polls be damned, the proof is in the pudding. Despite the polls screaming the contrary, the right guy won with more votes than any other candidate in our history.

But the media does not care.

They take a rebuke as an endorsement, a loss as a gain. They say we can only win in Iraq by pulling out. Yet, these are the same folks who accuse we of the right of living a 1984” mentality.

Walter Cronkite is the one person responsible for more deaths in Viet Nam than any other person. This eminent newsreader made it his personal crusade to get us out if Nam. His negative views and twisted reporting, his detailing of the deaths and the daily score card did more to undermine the confidence of the American people than any or every thing the North Vietnamese did. AND he is still at it!

Ann, great column, I love the way you point out the bleeding obvious in such a way that even a liberal could understand it, if they would only read your column.

I think that many people who actually take the time to answer telephone polls are bored or unemployed which would put them in the Democrat camp.

Another huge factor in Bush's low approval ratings is that many Republicans are annoyed with him and dissaprove of his performance although they would still vote for him. I would put myself in that category.

Bush has screwed up "PR" wise with the Harriet Meyers nomination, the Hurricaine, Iraq and the Port's deal. He has screwed up policy wise with the budget busting prescription drug "gift" to the pharmaceutical companies, removing any hope of price competition controlling drug prices. Then we have the fact that his immigration policy is non existent.

With this strategy he has alienated his base and still not made friends with the rabid liberals.

The solution is or would have been to enforce immigration while letting in more legals, withdraw Meyer's nomination after a few days, appear in New Orleans and do a Clintonesque "I feel your pain", admit in 2003 that "mistakes have been made but we are adapting" regarding Iraq and tell the pharmeceutic lobby to stick it up their ass and take it out of ours. Let the seniors raise hell about drug prices. They are probably the only group stronger than the drug companies. By masking the drug benefit as a aid to seniors rather than a grant to themselves, they hoodwinked us all. Now we have another unsustainable benefit to add to Medicare and SS. Great!

Anne,

You made a mistake. You said mainstream media. There is only one main stream media, Fox News Channel. All the rest are left wing wackos.

Dear Ann; Great column! But I did expect you to add "and Now, when I snap my fingers, You will be totally and irrevocably dissatisfied". PS; If we withdraw early, won't it leave a stain? Speaking of withdrawal: The answer to the incessant MSM query of: When will we withdraw from Iraq? Should be, Either, 1)when all 52 persons of interest in the card deck of Saddam's regime (remember the card deck) are accounted for as captured or dead, or 2)when the duly-constituted government of Iraq asks us to leave we will set a secret timetable for withdrawal, so as not to leave a stain.

Ann, don't be too hard on the MSM. You might offend Keith O., and he has enough problems with his lies now.

Once again Ann has reminded me as to why I feel nausea when perusing the mainstream media for more than 30 seconds.

Let's all see which of the "major 3" lead their evening news with the "good" news of our soldiers finding hostages...my nickel is on the "bad" news...bombing/death count etc.

Great column, Ann, but it is "preaching to the choir" since I can't "forward" it to the people who should read it since the Limbaugh site I get it on starts off every day with the capitalized "ConservativePixels.Com". The Liberals and In dependents immediately "delete" when they see that headline!

This in response to Tom who posted at March 23, 2006 08:43 AM:

I consider myself a "Joe Six-Pack" after President Clinton branded me so and I have to "protest" to the "offensive" language that you used to describe "me."

Other than that, I think that if our President would just bring his message directly to the public more often in the way that President Reagan did, then the news media would not be able to get away with the slanted polls that they make into headlines every other day.

God bless the troops and God Bless people like Ann.

I apologize, maybe too many "six-packs", but I should have credited Jaksavin at March 23, 2006 09:03 AM instead of Tom...My mistake

Okay, I really am Joe 6 pack, and a Marine to prove it.

I read Joe 6 pack novels (90 -120 pages) ... westerns mainly.

Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), a Joe 6 pack kinda guy, once summed it all up ...

"There are lies, there are damned lies, and then there are statistics."

Haha, sucked in!

I read the line that most Americans find Cindy Sheehan attractive and interesting, and I was going WHAT???

Another great column by the queen of sarcastic wit!

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!

To those who took exception to my “Joe Six-pack” reference, I humbly and deeply apologize. As it would appear that one if my major activities in life is to transport beer from the bottle/can/tap to a urinal, my choice of analogies might have been chosen more carefully.

Please let me rephrase, also at the risk of offending others: “The Half-Decaf-Komodo-Dragon-Blend-Half-Double-Arabian-Mocha-Sanani-With-A-Double-Shot-of-Expresso-Vente, please barrista Birkenstock wearing, government cheese eating, once-a-month-check-signing lemmings…"

So, to my friend “HiTekRedNek” please accept this apology! And I admire your “use” of “quotes.” It is a “habit” I “picked-up” from a few of “Ann’s” “books.”

And to “Athling”, thank you for your service to our country and being an exception that proves the rule.

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde (not a Joe Six-pack kinda guy I would think): “There is only one thing worse than someone criticizing what you wrote and that is someone who did not read what you wrote.”

God Bless and God Speed

Anne points out correctly the myriad lies perpetrated by the "mainstream media" in pursuit of their agenda, and yet the conservatives always have to be balanced. I am sick of "fair and balanced". Is it truly fair or balanced to offset a statement of reality with something plucked out of the Twilight Zone by a liberal? As a conservative, I know better than to argue with a liberal, simply because you cannot debate someone who invents reality as they go along. It would be most refreshing if the liberal press would bash Bush on something worthy of bashing; like his open border amnesty debacle, or the fact he allows our military men and women to be crucified in kangaroo courts, while our throat cutting enemy howls in laughter at our naive nonsense.

Those on the left seem to too stupid to realize that the only poll that counts is the one held in November. And we know how THAT turned out!

Okay ... I admit it ... I was a little more than stunned for (?) seconds when I read Cindy Sheehan and the word attractive in the same sentence ... and I thought nothing could ever get to me again after Boot Camp :)

Why does every one use the term Main Stream Media?

I always thought it was Left Stream Media.

I've seen fairer reporting on PBS, so PBS must be the Main Stream ......

Uh-oooh ... I've seen fairer reporting on BBC.

Considering the fact that, as Ann states, the Democrats have garnered only 2 majorities since Roosevelt (Johnson and Carter), Maybe they and the "Mainstream" Media ought to rethink exactly where and what the Mainstream is.

At the risk of sounding pedantic, if I may, I’d like to address the post above.

“Main Stream Media” is one of those oxymorons, similar to “jumbo shrimp.” We have simply come to accept the term “main stream media” by repeated utterances by the “main stream media” of the term “main stream media.”

This also falls under the category: “Tell a lie big enough and repeat it often and the whole wold will believe it.” (And, oddly enough, another of the “pearls of wisdom” given to us by Joseph Goebbels. And, odder still, the left accuses the right of being Nazi’s. Feel free to check out the myriad of blogs and editorials that support this assertion.)

Yet, as the term “main stream media” was coined by the “main stream media” its definition was crafted by the ones it describes. This would be analogous to reading a most positive review by Algore of yet another global warming book written by Algore.

Using the term “fair” to describe pretty much anything contained in the “NY Times” (“All the News Fit to Wrap Fish In”) is a contradiction of terms. But the word “fair” can be used as a condition, a comparative or whatever else they want it to mean. Is it to mean that it is benign, unbiased or just about average, like a grade of “C” in school? (Even grading on a curve the “Times” are far below a “C.”)

In England there is a little nugget called the “Trades Description Act” which mandates that all statements regarding a product must be factual or will be subject to penalties. The “product” of the “main stream media” is, of course, its biased reporting. Therefore, and allowing a little wiggle-room, the “main stream media” would, in fact, be in violation of this law.

God Bless and God Speed

Let's see how creative we can be to rename the MSM. I agree the term "mainstream" gives them way too much authenticity.

JASCC writes: "Let's see how creative we can be to rename the MSM. I agree the term 'mainstream' gives them way too much authenticity."

We can make it a contest!

My selections:
* Lame-Stream media.
* Left-wing-jihadist-Taliban-media.
* Same lies, different day media.
* Up the stream without a paddle media.
* Democrat Party talking points.
* Truth? We can't handle the truth media.
* Baghdad Bob speaks media.

I got a million of them!

God Bless and God Speed

Great Idea Jaksavin !!!

Here's my entry:

The Dan 'I'd Rather not be up the stream without a paddle' media.

Re: new name for MSM (I can't even bring myself to use the full words anymore)

I think "old media" is an apt description. Or maybe even OOD media (out-of-date)

Of course, "negative media" also fits. Gosh, we could go on and on and on...

JASCC .......... Perfect!

Old Media.

That sums it up. Like black & white TV, black & white movies. Reporters too old to even know what's relevant any more training younger reporters to be equally irrelevant.

If ya want to really rub it in, you can call it OBM (Old Boomer Media) ... or Boom Box Media :)

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