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The Bush Lies Marathon, Day 5

And the fibs just keep on comin'...

How'm I doin', dad?

1) The Arab world hates the US for its virtues--its freedom and prosperity. (Perry)

2) "I don't believe in nation-building." (Duane Evans)

3) The president is a former soldier himself. (Tom Ware)

4) The US's interest in "democratizing" the Middle East is not about oil at bottom. (Alan W. Peck)

5) An International Atomic Energy Commission report indicated that Iraq could be as little as six months from making nuclear weapons. (Ed Rickert)

6) Saddam's regime likely had the capability to launch drones carrying chemical or biological agents all the way to the US. (Rickert)

7) Shots rang out from the Palestine hotel, directed at US soldiers, just before a US tank fired directly on the hotel, killing two journalists (Ed Thornhill)

8) US troops were under attack when they fired upon crowds of civilian protesters in two separate incidents in Fallujah. (Perry)

9) A pro-western uprising occurred in the city of Basra as UK troops were advancing on the city. (Thornhill)

10) No major figure in the Bush administration asserted that the US would quickly find Iraqi WMD caches. (Thornhill)

Why Bush's Lies Stick, part 4

They make better television than the truth.

Something like three-quarters of the American public gets whatever news it receives from TV. And we all know what's become of TV news. As the line between informing and entertaining disappears altogether, so does the notion that news departments exist for any purpose other than entertaining--getting the best live shots, telling a tidy and gratifying "human" story, making sure the heroes look like heroes and the correspondents look like models. The Bush administration has excelled at crafting bedtime stories for the TV news, and the networks show no sign of tiring of them.

Posted by Steve Perry at June 19, 2003 10:55 AM

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