Tuesday, March 20, 2007

TIMES GIVES BUSH HIS TEDDY ROOSEVELT HALO

Dear New York Times: Please stop putting the administration's visual propaganda exactly where the administration wants it -- above the fold on Page One.



The version of the photo on the Times Web site solves the problem nicely, with cropping:



The accompanying story notes for the record that Bush spoke about the war "beneath a portrait of Theodore Roosevelt as a Rough Rider." That's fine. But retransmitting the image is transmitting propaganda, not news.

(And I won't like this propaganda technique any better if it's used in the future by a Democratic president, as I think I've made clear.)

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