Wagging The Dog

When it comes to the NSA wire-tapping scandal, RJ Eskow says Bush is winning the 'Headline War'. Eskow provides a long list of misleading headlines like "Bush Says Battling Terrorism Requires New Tactics" and pleads:

Somebody needs to play District Attorney and make the case for the Constitution. It can't defend itself.

But Eskow's article itself is kinda wimpy, given that the USA's pro-Bush media barons are not going to change their ways any time soon.

And of course the person who SHOULD be "playing District Attorney" is Senor Alberto Gonzales, who is even more securely in the pocket of Bush Co than John Ashcroft, his predecessor. It's enough to make you think that old Bush hands like Cheney and Rumsfeld successfully identified the AG position as a potential weakness in the US Republic...

What Bush & Co are doing - successfully as usual - is playing a lazy, complicit media. The Bush team's PR blitz provides lazy journos with ready-packaged stories day after day. Sure, Bush & Co are drawing attention to their own weakness, but they are also sticking with Karl Rove's tried-and-true winning strategy: the best form of defence is attack. Spin, spin, spin...

The best way to combat this is to provide an alternative story with an alternative headline. Here are a few suggestions:

Millions March On White House

Democrats Walk Out Of Senate, Congress

Protestors Jam Talk Show Phone Lines

Skull and Bones: John Kerry Reveals All

NY Police: We'll Strike If Bush Is Not Arrested

George Soros Buys Knight Ridder

"War Crimes" Everywhere - A Graffitti Phenomenon

Phone Companies Refuse To Co-operate With Bush Wiretaps

US Soldiers Lay Down Weapons

UPDATE: Molly Ivins calls on US journalists to "get over reporting the Bush administration as though it were a credible source.".