Perhaps I'm being too hard on the American public...posted by C

And not hard enough on the press.

Matt Yglesias here (thanks to Digby) refers to studies that show that most Americans would have opposed the Bush tax cuts for favoring the rich, but were misled by the Administration, and not enlightened by the press.

Similarly, the majority of those who support the Iraq war were (are still?) under the misapprehension that a) we have found WMDs in Iraq or b) that Hussein was in bed with Al Queda or c) that world opinion was with Bush.

As I wrote in regards to the Emperors new clothes (two posts down)-- and is no secret-- the press has largely relegated itself to reporting sound bites on two sides of each issue, and allowing the chips to fall where they may. If the Administration is more effective in telling lies than the opposition is in countering those lies, then so be it.


  ¶ 2:30 PM