Straws in the wind, continued

Updated Yesterday I wondered aloud (well, ablog) if the use in a news article of the term "pro-business" to describe the restrictions on class action suits and bankruptcy moving through Congress, rather than more neutral or pro-Bush phrases, possibly indicated a shift in the willingness of the media to challenge the dream world of the White House.

Here's another example; the emphasis is of course added.

Shreveport, La. (AP, March 11) - In state after state along President Bush's Social Security road campaign, hand-picked audiences cheer him, leaving the impression that the nation wholeheartedly backs his ideas for reform.

The reality is different. ...

Only when dissenters manage to slip into the presidential events and voice their disapproval is there an inkling of what opinion polls clearly show: Not everyone is on board.

The article was prompted by the results of an AP poll which showed that only 37% of Americans support Bush on Social Security despite all his campaigning. What's important for the point here is not the numbers but the description of the audiences as "hand-picked" ones into which dissenters must "slip" to be heard.

Is the SCLM at long, long last finally getting fed up with the increasingly brazen manipulations and falsifications engineered by the Shrub team? Time will tell - but I have a sneaking suspicion that the stone wall the White House has run into on Social Security has made the administration look at least a little vulnerable - and we know how the MSM likes vulnerable targets.

Updated to note that Buzzflash points us to an article in Saturday's Washington Post titled "Social Security: On With the Show; President's 'Conversations' on Issue Are Carefully Orchestrated, Rehearsed."

"If the presentations sound well rehearsed," the Post says, "it's because they often are," later describing them as "meticulously staged."

Buzzflash gripes that this comes "after more than four years," but I would rather enjoy the fact that it's happening at all.