SPIN WATCH

From the same article as below. Just to highlight the spin that simply washes over most readers.

This is the mindset of most Iraqi people, the Jumailis say firmly, despite the daily reports of US casualties that underscore a stubborn resistance to the American occupation and a growing tide of criticism against the US-sanctioned Governing Council.

If you assert that your child has grown over the summer, to prove it you probably stand the child against a mark on the door frame made in April.

To say the deficit has grown, we go back to compare it to a known point six months ago.

But the author appears to believe he needs no such reference point to measure public sentiment in Iraq.

Here the author asserts in a rather off-handed manner that the criticism of the Governing Council is a "growing tide".

Says who? Compared to what? How do we know it is growing? What about the possibility that it exists, but at a constant rate...or even is diminishing?

Keeping this web site is an exercise that leads me to read over one-hundred news stories each day. The result is this sort of sleight of the journalistic hand just jumps out at me these days.

In the past I never even noticed this soft-spoken editorializing. And that is the danger...it leaves its pessimistic mark without many knowing it is there.

Frankly it reminds me of the trick we played in school in the eighth grade. At lunch break one boy sidles up along side the other, slaps him on the back and says "nice touchdown you made on Thursday night" and walks off.

Meanwhile, the honoree is clueless that he now wears a sign on his back reading "loser".

It is a sort of drive by offense...and if you aren't attuned to it, you may find yourself pessimistic without even knowing why.

Don't fall for it.