Rope Anyone?

The MSM breathlessly reports every percentage drop in President Bush’s approval rating, as if the plummeting numbers somehow serve to justify their unrelenting 24/7 negative stories on everything Bush does—not just in Iraq, but everything. In reality it’s the other way around.

The media’s 24/7/365 drumbeat against this president drives the poll numbers downward and it is … well .. just a bit frightening. It’s as if the left-leaning MSM has deciding to take this guy down, and because they control virtually every medium of mass communication (FoxNews and the WSJ excluded), they can damn well do it.

Ben Stein comments after listening the ABCs coverage following the State of the Union:

And suddenly it hit me. The media is staging a coup against Mr. Bush. They cannot impeach him because he hasn't done anything illegal. But they can endlessly tell us what a loser he is and how out of touch he is (and I mean ENDLESSLY) and how he's just a vestigial organ on the body politic right now.

Now, Bush has screwed up, and certainly the media has every right to criticize. It’s what they do. But the level of vituperation is noteworthy. Again Stein comments:

True, we are mired in a war without end, costing us far too may great young and old Americans and too many limbs and wrecked families and vastly too much money. But we all know we're getting out soon. It was a huge mistake, but I'd like to see a President who did not make immense mistakes. Compared with the mistakes of Truman and FDR and Kennedy, Iraq is a mistake, but not worse than theirs.

True, we have virtually no federal oversight of corporate looting and executive suite misconduct, but we didn't have any under Clinton either. The rich get away with murder. That's what happens in the real world. Bush is to blame, but all politicians cater to the rich, and Hillary will and Barack Obama will, too. It's nauseating and I fight it constantly, but that's life.

In fairness, it's only reasonable to state that like every President, Bush has had his successes. A housing boom resulting in more Americans that ever in homes of their own. Near full employment. A solid GDP. The prescription drug program for seniors. A deficit that is on its way down, and no terror attacks since 9/11. Like him or not, these pluses are real. But even good news is spun into bad.

In an AP report just yesterday, the headline reads: “U.S., Iraqi troops clash in Baghdad.” My God, now we’re at war with Iraqi troops, our allies!! Man, this thing is really screwed up!! Oh … wait. The story under the headline … you know, the words that many people never read … tells us that “U.S. and Iraqi troops battled Sunni insurgents hiding in high-rise buildings on Haifa Street in the heart of Baghdad Wednesday, with snipers on roofs taking aim at gunmen in open windows as Apache attack helicopters hovered overhead.” But the headline said … oh, never mind.

Stein concludes:

My point: let's be aware that Bush has presided over a lot of success in addition to substantial failure. My second point: no one elected the media to anything. If we let them lynch the man we elected as President we are throwing out the Constitution with the war in Iraq. In the studios and newsrooms, there is a lynch mob at work. Let's see it for what it is. We have a good man who has made mistakes in the Oval Office. He's the only President we have, and I trust him a lot more than I trust unelected princes of the newsroom.

Rope anyone?