When it comes to serving the emperor, the AP is endlessly creative.
Take the story about an AP-AOL poll in which people chose villains and heroes.
AP manfully reports in the fourth graf of the story that "Bush won the villain sweepstakes by a landslide, with one in four respondents putting him at the top of that bad-guy list. When people were asked to name the candidate for villain that first came to mind, Bush far outdistanced even Osama bin Laden, the terrorist leader in hiding; and former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein."
But how could they possibly spin that to make Bush look good?
How about beginning the story like this:
WASHINGTON (AP) – Bad guy of 2006: President Bush. Good guy of 2006: President Bush.
When people were asked in an AP-AOL News poll to name the villains and heroes of the year, Bush topped both lists, in a sign of these polarized times.
Unh, well yeah ... Except "The president was picked as hero of the year by a much smaller margin. In the poll, 13 percent named him as their favorite while 6 percent cited the troops in Iraq."
Twice as many picked him as a villain, but hey that's balanced by .... arrrgh!
Posted by Deck at December 28, 2006 07:23 PM