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I thought I would share with you some text from an interview I heard between Jon Stewart and Charlie Rose. Here is what Jon Stewart had to say about the Bush administration and their use of the media:
"This is a really interesting administration. They seem to function almost to the opposite of the way you would imagine the feckless politician functions. Normally people say, “Politicians just listen to polls to make decisions.” These guys make a decision and then use polls to figure out how to sell it, which is a really interesting technique. For example, they might say, “We have a bottle full of sewage here. How do I make this person drink it? I know! I’ll call it Fresca! Oh, and I’ll say it’s good for you. And if a report comes out that says it’s bad for you, I’ll cross out the word “bad.” So it’s a really interesting technique in that they’re not changing what they’re going to do; they’re just changing the way they’re going to sell it.'
The media is supposed to be our eyes and ears--our protector--in this busy world and when that system fails, we are vulnerable to this kind of double-speak and, again, this administration is very skilled at exploiting the loopholes in the media. Now, I know it’s tough to discuss it when you say “The Media” because it does make it seem as though the media is this sorta Borg-like organism that all functions together. Actually what the Bush administration has been able to do is realize that the media are actually competing fiefdoms. And by playing them off against each other--by using ambition and flattery and punishment and scorn as weapons of carrot and stick--this administration has been able to effectively navigate the waters very cleanly and come out the other end with the message that they want."
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