Media Manipulation 101

Today must be Don't Trust the Media Day or something. While going through my morning news-reading ritual, I stumbled across a couple articles detailing the way in which media images are manipulated. Does it come as a huge surprise that President Bush's appearances are staged? How can a President reach "ordinary people" when everyone who attends a public appearance is probably part of the economic elite? Have everyone sitting behind the President take off their ties.

Of greater concern than audience members instructed to remove ties is a piece appearing on the BBC News website. According to a correspondent for the BBC, the U.S. military staged the dramatic special forces rescue of POW Jessica Lynch. A similar story appears in the Guardian. It would appear, my fellow Americans, that we've been played. Why stage such a dramatic rescue? We need war heroes, damnit! What better way to simultaneously raise the ire and patriotic spirit of the U.S. people! Not only do we see our brave boys engaged in (insert your favorite action hero)-like heroics, but we have a damsel in distress. It's no wonder Jessica Lynch has amnesia. She probably wants to forget the way in which she was used by her own employer, the military. Buck up, Jessica! A movie deal is surely in the works.