Rhetoric

The Big Lie Continues

by Sheldon Rampton — September 17, 2002 - 10:00pm

"The myth that the National Educational Association told teachers not to blame Sept. 11 on al-Qaida continues to unravel," reports Brendan Nyhan. "It's now clear that Washington Times reporter Ellen Sorokin based her original myth-creating article on a preliminary NEA Web site that clearly wasn't complete, misconstruing quotations from a recommended sample essay allegedly written by a professor named Brian Lippincott and attributing them to the NEA.

Main Source: 
Spinsanity.org, September 18, 2002

Greens Accused of Helping Africans Starve

by Sheldon Rampton — September 12, 2002 - 10:52am

U.S. AID Administrator Andrew Natsios has accused environmentalists "of endangering the lives of millions of famine-threatened Africans by encouraging their governments to reject genetically modified U.S.

Main Source: 
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20020830-2441442.htm

Social Security = "Reverse Reparations"?

by Sheldon Rampton — September 11, 2002 - 10:00pm

The Republican Party in Kansas City is backpedalling after running an advertisement on black radio stations attacking Social Security as a form of "reverse reparations" to blacks. "You've heard about reparations, you know, where whites compensate blacks for enslaving us," says the ad. "Well guess what we've got now. Reverse reparations ...

Main Source: 
Talking Points Memo, September 12, 2002

Iraqi Dissident, "Keep Hammering On The Same Nail"

by Laura Miller — September 1, 2002 - 10:00pm

The State Department is providing media training to Iraqi dissidents to "help make the Bush administration's argument for the removal of Saddam Hussein," PR week reports. In addition to teaching the 17 Iraqis how to write "effective op-eds and speeches," the State Department is giving direction on "what to speak about in order to convince the public of the need to topple Hussein." PR Week reports a State Department spokeswoman saying, "The message is democracy. The message is open and free elections.

Main Source: 
On the Media, August 30, 2002; PR Week, September 2, 2002

Smearing Teachers as Terrorists

by Sheldon Rampton — August 31, 2002 - 10:00pm

Did America's largest teachers union construct a subversive web site concerning September 11? This nasty slander against the National Education Association has been spreading across the Internet, sparked by a series of articles in the Washington Times.

Main Source: 
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh082802.shtml

We Don't Call It "Privatization" Anymore

by Sheldon Rampton — August 31, 2002 - 10:00pm

Republicans are "crying foul" when Democrats use the term "privatization" to describe their plans for Social Security, but as Joshua Micah Marshall notes, "The simple truth is that 'privatization' has always been the word Republicans themselves used to describe their policy. That is, it was until they rather belatedly realized that their policy was killing them with voters. ... Now the term (and the policy, for that matter) is a political loser.

Main Source: 
Talking Points Memo, September 1, 2002

Wag The Puppy

by Laura Miller — August 22, 2002 - 10:00pm

"Some people are suspicious that President Bush will go for a 'wag the dog' strategy -- boosting Republican prospects with a military assault on Iraq shortly before Election Day. But a modified approach now seems to be underway. Let's call it 'wag the puppy,'" media watcher and nationally syndicated columnist Normon Solomon writes. He suggests the appearance of a "healthy debate" on Iraq may lack real substance and may instead serve to distract attention from negative economic issues facing the Bush Administration.

Main Source: 
TomPaine.com, August 23, 2002

Clean-Up By Redefinition

by Laura Miller — August 13, 2002 - 10:00pm

"Florida's environmental bureaucrats are in the process of removing 600 bodies of water from the state's 'impaired' list by changing the rules. They redefined impaired," Palm Beach Post editorial writer Sally Swartz reports. When a lake or river is classified "impaired," explains Swartz, the state is required to set a limit on how much pollution can be dumped into the water. If a body of water isn't on the "impaired" list, there are no limits. Large developers, corporate farms, and other industry would benefit from the redefinition.

Main Source: 
Palm Beach Post, August 14, 2002

Spinsanity's Inanity

by Sheldon Rampton — July 9, 2002 - 7:40pm

The Spinsanity.org website has on occasion published insightful commentaries on misleading uses of political rhetoric in the United States. In July 2002, however, Spinsanity itself published a deceptive attack on the media watchdog organization Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). After FAIR criticized U.S.

Main Source: 
http://www.spinsanity.org/columns/20020701-rampton.html

Hitting the Trifecta

by Sheldon Rampton — June 26, 2002 - 10:00pm

Shortly after George W. Bush was selected president, the Onion joked that "our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is over." Now Bush is making the same joke himself and using it as an excuse for breaking his campaign pledge to avoid defecit spending. "You know, when I was running for president, in Chicago, somebody said, would you ever have deficit spending?" Bush says. "I said, only if we were at war, or only if we had a recession, or only if we had a national emergency.

Main Source: 
MSNBC, June 27, 2002
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