Washington Post Accepts Bush Spin As Truth

By The Seminal

A front page headline in Saturday's Washington Post read "For Bush in Last Year, It's the Principle". The article discussed Bush's plan to push ahead "with proposals that appear to have last chance of passage". What caught my attention was this passage, considered in light of the article's headline:

Presidential aides characterize Bush as intent on pursuing matters of principle, regardless of the polls. Democrats accuse him of needless stubbornness at the expense of improving a battered economy and addressing other problems.

Standard "media balance"–Republicans say one thing, Democrats say another, you sort it out. What caught my attention, though, was that the Republican talking point became the article's headline. Someone reading the headline would think "wow, Bush is acting on principle." In fact, that's only Bush's take on what he is doing–Democrats strongly disagree. It's just that the Post accepted Bush's version as truth.

Given that Bush is a president who has approved torture and has offered constantly changng reasons for going to war in Iraq, I'm not sure why the Post chose to credit the administration's vision of Bush as a man f principle. Here are some other ways they could have written the headline, without lending the administration's spin the aura of objective truth:

"Bush Calls it "Principle", Democrats Say It's Stubbornness"
"Bush and Democrats Clash as Administration Comes to a Close"

I might have gone with this:

"Deeply Unpopular President Fights to Stay Relevant"

It wasn't just the front page headline– when you turn to page 6 to read the rest of the article in the print version, the secondary headline reads "Bush Resolute as Obstacles Grow."

This administration doesn't need to worry about PR–The Washington Post is glad to act as presidential stenographer, turning presidential spin into headlines. Others might see Bush as a deeply unpopular president struggling to stay relevant–after all, a recent poll shows he's more unpopular than Nixon was just before he resigned. To the Post, Bush is Gary Cooper n High Noon.

Original article
FILED UNDER: Guest Blogger
May 4, 2008
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Bush as principled?

A "principled" Bush would fight for electric cars powered from our solar-powered houses, and give govt and Detroit the "whatever it takes to get it done", or arm-wrestle the regions and municipalities to develop a days-on/days off schedule for three-wheeled bicycles to own the highways, so that those who could could safely commute, shop, would go about their business along with the electric vehicles, on those days. The rest of the week the "ancient sunlight"/petroleum automobiles could careen to their hearts'content until we reduced their domain to two days/one day a week/ no days a week, in the not-too-distant future.

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By NamaimoMay 4, 2008 - 9:13pm

Clueless

Why do you think it is a good idea to return the "developed" nations to 3rd world
nation status? Riding bikes and camels around? How about concentrating on
entrepenuership and ways to commute that are something we have not seen
before. like SUV's that get 75 mpg? why is that impossible? I love My Jeep 4X4
and would rather die than have the government or you people try to take it away
from me. If you want socialism so bad move to Europe.

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By obrienchiro@com...May 4, 2008 - 10:18pm

By obrienchiro@com...May 4, 2008 - 10:18pm

Why is it that whenever a righty sees/hears something that offends their world view, they resort to the "socialism" tag?

I "get" how you feel about your Jeep. I REALLY MISS my '90 Wrangler YJ 4.2L./ 5 sp. God, that thing was FUN to drive (happiness is driving topless!)...and it was going to be my "project" rig , but not long after I had the engine re-built, I had to sell it (keep the 15mpg jeep/keep the 23mpg Chevy PU...both paid for) due to the scarcity of work and needing some cash. To this day, I mourn that decision....even though I know I did the correct thing.

I agree with you that there is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON why we can't have a vehicle that we LOVE and great gas mileage. We need to pressure our auto-makers for this, not blame socially responsible people.

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By roadgoddessMay 4, 2008 - 11:36pm

By obrienchiro@com...May 4, 2008 - 10:18pm

like SUV's that get 75 mpg? why is that impossible?
----------------------
My guess is that it's not so much "impossible" as it is possible that oil companies oppose as much and work very closely with Detroit (and DC) to see that it doesn't happen. Yeah for big business!
____________________
"It's all been satirized for your protection." --Maher

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By SJerseyIndyMay 5, 2008 - 10:25am

it's not socialism

First of all, it's not socialism. Read what socialism is before you make such a comment. Nobody is proposing socializing ANYTHING in this campaign.

What is being discussed is a "single payer" universal health care system. You still get to choose your doctor, still get all the options you have now. The government MANAGES it, that's all.

I know what you will say: "Government programs are the worst managed of the lot!". Sometimes yes, sometimes no. That has a lot more to do with who is put in charge of the program. For example, Bush's cronies have done a TERRIBLE job at managing the programs/agencies he's put them in charge of (i.e. Katrina response).

If our universal health plan is done right, and constructed with transparency built in, it will CERTAINLY run better than the for-profit companies that exist today. AND at a lower cost.

-- McCain = Four more years of the same --

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By dtaylo75May 5, 2008 - 1:21pm

Washington Post - Spin as Truth

We are talking about someone lacking in conscience, intellect and spirit-a true sociopath with no soul. It is best to just ignore bush and let him slowly rot.

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By pbedwardsMay 5, 2008 - 12:09am

Washington Post goes against 71% disapproval rating of bush

The Post obviously doesn't want to sell newspapers.

I swear to you today, in front of all, that I will not read or
link to this paper again, until they come to their senses.

I am the majority. I will have my way.

bush resign. save me a bullet.

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By dewbie dubaiMay 5, 2008 - 10:13am

Answer the door bell...

... It's the Secret Service.

They'd like to have a little chat with you.

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By mrhiIIaryoneMay 5, 2008 - 10:42am

The WP shelved its reputation when this administration took 1600

For whatever reason - advertising? access? - it bleached the dark truth at every opportunity. All attempts to make failure more palatable and smoother in the gullet just contributed to the flatulence.

Bushie! Doin' a helluva job!
G0P Trinity: Failure, Fraud, Endless Deceit.

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By Abou Ben AdamMay 5, 2008 - 6:40am

The only principle

that needs to be recognized for this criminal is the principle of impeachment.

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By AntillectualMay 5, 2008 - 8:36am

My takeaway from this is

My takeaway from this is that it's another good example of how stupid so-called 'real' journalism - & I use the term advisedly - is these days. Any 1 of those headlines would've been way more accurate than the 1 used. & I understand reporters don't write their own headlines - don't they come from the editorial dept.? But, still, who are these people & how did they get the jobs they have?
They are clearly morons = P

I saw something along the same lines yesterday - the headline gave an entirely false impression of the content of the story - & it was, of course, a political story.