The George Bush that you might not want to know
By admin on Mar 7, 2008 in Blogging, Politics
1984 by George Orwell (1903-1950)
The majority of people in the United States are on the low end ‘displeased’ with the performance of President Bush. Many have come to not even like him personally. I’ve heard people say “He’s too stupid to be President, We don’t need a C President.” I’m sure you’ve heard worse. Are you ready for something that will make you say ‘are you serious?’ and ‘no way!’. Matrix fans, time to take the red pill. This might astound you! I’m sure you’ve heard of that saying that goes
Never Judge a book by its cover
The fact is though we all do, that is judge each other as well as books by just the way it looks. Or in this case just the way we are told to think of President Bush day in and day out every day of the year by the media.
Propaganda at it’s finest.
In a nation as free as the United States, you’d think that the people are told the truth and hear all of the news as well. True – but I will show you with two easy examples and links right now how insidious propaganda is and how the major news media employs it. I’ll show you how it is really INTENT that needs to be looked at with every single news broadcast from this day forward. It is the intent of the news service, ABC, NBC, CNN and so on, that matters most.
Things that YOU were fooled with and even now may not know the truth.
Surprise Surprise, oh how the media plays us all
When it comes to President Bush, I’ll give you an important example of propaganda that made him lose hundreds of thousands of votes in the last election on the low end. I know because I was a volunteer pollster, and had many voters tell me they just can’t vote for a C student to stay in the White House. We needed someone more intelligent like Kerry whom the media painted as a genius compared to President Bush.
Bush was a C student, what a _____!
What if I told you that the entire major media, with the exception of just FOX did their very best to always attack Bush and his grades in college? For some strange reason they only kept saying that the grades were vastly different from the Democratic challenger’s. They never told us what those grades were. Some like me asked – well what were Kerry’s grades?
What Were Kerry’s Grades?
That’s the million dollar question then isn’t it. Every media outlet called Bush a dunce for being a C student. They said we need someone with better than a C average in the White House. This helped Kerry in the form of many hundreds of thousands of votes. at least. Numbers possibly in the millions who called Bush an idiot and too stupid to be President thanks to constant media attacks.
What Were Kerry’s Grades?
Let this be one of the best examples of propaganda pulled over the American public. Pulled off quite well by a media bent on getting rid of President Bush. John Kerry did worse than Bush in college! Fact! Click Here
In 1999, The New Yorker published a transcript indicating that Bush had received a cumulative score of 77 for his first three years at Yale and a roughly similar average under a non-numerical rating system during his senior year.
Kerry, who graduated two years before Bush, got a cumulative 76 for his four years, according to a transcript that Kerry sent to the Navy when he was applying for officer training school. He received four D’s in his freshman year out of 10 courses, but improved his average in later years.
Maki over at DoshDosh has a great article titled The Art of Propaganda: 7 Common Tactics Used to Influence Behavior.
In it he describes how name calling is used as one of the seven common propaganda devices. The stigma of being a C student hurt Bush, but fellow C Student Kerry kept it secret until after the election with the help of the media. Additional names developed like dunce, moron, all coming out of the mainstream media.
Bush and Kerry in college
Let’s recap how you were made to believe the lie
The media convinced most Americans that Bush was stupid based on his college grades. Grades that in reality were actually about even or better than Kerry’s! The media helped hide the fact that Kerry refused to release his grades until AFTER the election. If all of the stupidity skits on Saturday Night Live and Mad TV and in the papers daily didn’t have the false facts to fuel their ridicule, Bush would have done even better than he did. The public perception would have changed drastically. My own Mother had told me that Bush was stupid and that’s why she wanted to vote for Kerry. When I asked her why she thought so , she told me simply “everyone knows, it’s all over the news and everyone is talking about how stupid he is and was almost a drop out. ”
Now it Gets Clear and Sickening
Can 2 + 2 = 5?
Before the election of 2004, the major news media had almost nightly told us how terrible the economy was. Newspapers as well pointed to the unemployment rate, which was a staggering, horrible, terrible 5.6%! That’s some of the words used to describe the unemployment rate especially on stations like MSNBC and CNN.
If you asked the average American if the economy was going well at the time, they would by a large majority say it wasn’t. Many people voted for Kerry thanks to their perception of our horrible unemployment and economy. This was on the eve of the election to vote in the next President of the United States.
Surprise, You’ve been scammed
Shocker – I want you to think hard about this. What if I told you that the very same 5.6% unemployment rate was called ‘a low rate’ when President Clinton was in office? What if I told you that not only was the unemployment low, but the media went out of it’s way to say how fantastic things were with the ‘low unemployment’. Here’s a CNN Story from 1996 – click here
“Economists didn’t expect June’s unemployment rate to be much different from May’s, which was an already-low 5.6 percent. But in fact, it did fall — to 5.3 percent. The unemployment rate hasn’t been that low since June 1990.
If the media every day tell us that the economy is great and even says the unemployment level is near record lows – at 5.6% while Clinton is in office, we believe that 5.6% is a good rate. The economy is beautiful.
Then when they tell us that 5.6% is horrible and terrible and so on while Bush is in office then what? The media has proven that most people would then think it is bad. That 5.6% is a bad unemployment rate. This is propaganda at it’s finest. It’s a lesson in how to fool a free people with a free media.
Now You Will Think The Opposite
The media made you think that an unemployment rate of 5.6% is a disaster, terrible, outsourcing dilemma, and so on all while Bush is the President. While President Clinton was in office you believed that it was a good rate, near record lows.
I’m sure you’re starting to see how games can be played even in a free nation with a free press. Anyone would fall for it if you didn’t remember the unemployment rate when Clinton was in office. Who remembers that except geeky nuts and now internet bloggers who let nothing past them at all?
But again, think…
If the vast majority of the news outlets like CNN, NBC, MSNBC and ABC do nothing but talk of how gloomy things are, they will become more gloomy in general, at least in the way you and we the people perceive things.
If day in and out all over the newspapers and TV and cable they say the economy is doing well thanks to unemployment being a low 5.6% , you think the President is doing well – as in Clinton.
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
~ William Shakespeare
- How common is this form of propaganda?
- How often are we led to believe one thing when in fact it is the complete opposite that is true?
Right and Left need to recognize right from wrong
Now wherever you fit on the political spectrum, you have to be a little upset at how you were duped.
Not that I’m saying I would ever vote for Bush, but knowing real reasons to like or dislike a candidate is far better than just going along with the crowd.
For the lies to be pulled over on you, the media needs to do a few things. Such as:
- Repeat the ‘facts’ over and over whether true or not
- Omit needed information that public would need to make a decision
- Have everyone ‘agree’ – There must be a consensus whether real or imagined.
That’s how these examples above were pulled over the eyes of the American public. Whatever you think of him, far more of you would have thought better had you known that he did better in college than Kerry. All of the videos and news programs and news articles in papers over and over every day do have an impact.
The Future of American Freedom
We Americans pride ourselves as being free. We are so free that we now are able to be told one candidate is smarter than another based on their college grades. Yet virtually NO ONE in the media other than FOX asked ‘What were Kerry’s Grades? Also why aren’t they released? Omitting this in every story that told of Bush’s grades is propaganda. How can you judge one person on his college grades while his opponent is allowed to hide his grades until after the election? How is it that CBS and NBC and CNN didn’t bother to bring this up. Or better, like the NY Times and other papers that buried the story. Does anyone else here smell a rat?
We all fell for it, pledge never again!
Now again, I’m not saying that I would never have voted for Bush regardless of knowing the truth. Also even knowing that the economy and the unemployment rate was pretty good at 5.6%.
We all judged the man based on his intelligence. Like Reagan the entire media called him an idiot. Reagan proved the complete opposite with the release of his notes.
You’ve seen the media twist and turn the facts and interpret them to their liking. Leaving you to just go along with what they are saying. Never knowing if you are being played for a fool.
Do we even care or want to know the truth?
I am one person who is more than insulted that the major news media is so low that they can play such games and think that we would not notice. But for many others, yeah sure Bush is a moron, and the economy really is horrible.
I’m someone who is not a supporter of President Bush. I have to say there are plenty of reasons to not like his policies. This doesn’t mean we should employ lies and deceit to make our case. The economy even today is doing well. Unemployment is now near record lows ( 4.8%! ). Has anyone else noticed the complete lack of positive news on unemployment? I bet not.
Wake Up America, time is ticking and the propaganda grows more bold.
Next: Global Warming Facts – Is it another Y2K? Amazing Facts and Links.
Scott | Mar 9, 2008 | Reply
Great article. Too bad none of it is true. Newsweek, Time, and my hometown Chicago Tribune all had stories about Kerry’s grades long BEFORE the election.
Anyone who violates the bill of rights deserves to be called any name that sticks.
Did you know that lawyers for Fox News argued in court in 2004 that Fox has a right to broadcast false stories? You have the right idea, you’re just on the wrong side.
Eric S | Mar 9, 2008 | Reply
Thank you! Very well written with great examples. So many sheep to enlighten, so very little time!!
Some Jew | Mar 9, 2008 | Reply
While it is a good point that the media plays us. What about those who do not watch major media sources of either party and can still come to the conclusion that Bush simply is not very smart? (Opinion of course your entitled to your own) Now I’m not saying Kerry was smart (In fact I wrote an essay to my synagogue describing the race between Kerry & Bush as “Tweedledee V.S. Tweedledum”) but it was over painted that Bush was the “dumb one” when Kerry did not show any amount of intelligence over Bush at least by what I saw of him. It’s sad when the only way to get non-biased information is to quit watching the media and hunt for the info yourself. It would be the only way to make a truly informed decision.
Monica Hess | Mar 9, 2008 | Reply
Thank you so much! I’m so tired of the media slant. It’s just disgusting.
But, these are the people who think any means justify the end…as long as it’s their end.
David | Mar 9, 2008 | Reply
Grades don’t equal intelligence. You keep telling me what I thought and how I judged and on what I made decisions. Bush speaks and I know he isn’t bright enough to be president. I look at his policies, the influence that smart and unscrupulous people have in his administration, his record when he was governor of Texas when I lived there, and all the other underachieving facts of his life and see that he is a moderately bright guy who is out of his league.
I’m a teacher. I know grades don’t equal intelligence. But Bush’s approval ratings aren’t low because of the liberal media, they are low because of a disastrous war, a crappy economy, a corrupt administration, huge rip-offs in the form of subsidies (read:no-bid contracts) to the vice presidents company, and a general disregard for working people in America.
The man fell asleep on watch and we got 9-11, he gave tax breaks to the rich and we got recession, he went to war in Iraq before we actually cleaned up Afghanistan and he managed to turn both wars into bureaucratic clusterfucks. That’s why we think he isn’t bright. That’s why we don’t approve of the job he’s doing.
SeismicMike | Mar 9, 2008 | Reply
Wow, this is refreshing. Good to see a blogger who uses his brain and looks at the facts. I’ve seen way too many ‘Bush bashers’ who do nothing but ignore the facts (not that I’m saying that Bush bashing is inherently wrong, but only if there’s a substantial reason behind it… not all this wishful thinking)
It’s scary the influence the media has on us. It’s even scarier that people don’t listen to Fox/MSNBC/CNN/ABC/CBS nearly as much as they listen to Hollywood celebrities who have NO IDEA what they’re talking about!
admin | Mar 9, 2008 | Reply
Scott – The NY Times as well ( buried deep inside) and the Daily News. The point is if a paper claims it covered a story and put it on page 42, something is up don’t you think? Especially if they then tell of the other C Student over and over and over to the point of making a news junkie like myself sick. Propaganda works best when people don’t want to see the whole picture, but pick out a small detail and say “See, I have you!”, when it is not true at all.
Secondly, you said something about violating the bill of rights. Bush did this to whom, terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq? They don’t have a Bill of Rights, they aren’t even Americans. I hope you’re not bringing up Padilla, that one American we can point out. By the way he was convicted for supporting al-Qaida and other violent Islamic extremist groups overseas.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3488260
No – I didn’t know that FOX argued the right to put out fake news. Have they ever done so, willingly? I mean on the scale of like Dan Rather, using completely made up facts and ultimately losing his job over the whole scam when he purposely tried to destroy Bush before the election with his fake AWOL story. A scam that the bloggers took apart big time.
You see in this internet age, the Republicans and Democrats will come under increasing fire from a better informed public. These games, I’ll agree with you, are done by the right, but more so by the left in the U.S.
admin | Mar 9, 2008 | Reply
Eric S – You’re very welcome.
Some Jew – I agree with you that only quiting the media would give an unbiased view of issues. We still need to get the info though, and from what source? I can tell you one thing. The news outlet that I catch doing a flip flop on basic things like telling us 5.6% is good while a Democrat is in office, and bad while a Republican is in office is peddling propaganda and to be avoided.
How’s this one, it’s interesting and I was going to include the details in the article. I didn’t want to make it into an article on which party I thought was the lesser of two evils.
The Homeless Debate and focus on it. Did you by any chance notice that homelessness was insane while Reagan was in Office. Crazy when Bush the first was there, and then they all ( all 3 million homeless) virtually disappeared, almost overnight when Clinton took office? I always got a great laugh out of that. How a story could be so popular then as Clinton gets in, story frequency declines drastically, almost to nothing! You know when the frequency upticks and gets crazy again? When Bush JR. took office. What does this tell you? I hope you agree that the 3 million homeless didn’t go on vacation while Clinton was President.
David – I agree with you, grades do not mean intelligence and I hope people didn’t get that impression.
As for Bush and when he speaks, if you watch a station like CNN or even better MSNBC, Bush will look like a monkey. I just love the way he says nuclear. It hurts to hear it actually.
A few things though. You speak of his record while Gov. of Texas. I’m not familiar with every local Texan policy, but didn’t Texans overwhelmingly vote him into 2 terms. He also handily took Texas twice running for President. How is it that his policies are so unpopular with you, but not with the large majority that voted for him?
You said a lot and my answers are getting long winded in here.
I have to address them though.
I agree with Iraq not turning out so well, but I hope it still can. It’s getting better finally.
As for the crappy economy, I disagree completely. Like 100%. Our economy on every level is outstanding. I’m not saying every sector, I mean in numbers. Check out our exploding exports thanks to the low dollar. Europe hates that the dollar is so low, as they’re exports to the US are hurt and our exports increase. This adds further jobs and right now we are doing damn fine. My only complaint is the stock market.
Corrupt Admin comment – I don’t know of any that aren’t corrupt? Can you name any?
Subsidies and contracts to the VP’s company – check the field Halliburton is in and what the best companies are in those fields. Then what to do, should we punish American taxpayers and go with a bidder with less experience and skills and reputation, possibly costing me and you more of our tax $s. All of this because our Vice President ran that successful company in the past and was fully out of their stock as well.
How is there a general disregard for working people? In what way? I work, I should know this right?
9-11 can’t be blamed on him, not in a million years.
You can’t go into a recession by letting people keep more of their money.
You get into a recession by spending too much of the people’s money. Everything government does is a minimum of 30-50% less efficient than the private sector. Think Post Office vs UPS. You know what will happen if the monopoly on regular mail were lifted? The Post Office would be destroyed by Fedex and UPS within a few years.
This is one of my biggest complaints of the Bush Administration. All of the talk of fiscal responsibility and he and Congress are spending money like idiots.
War is always a clusterfuck.
Kevin | Mar 9, 2008 | Reply
Nice article, but I was perfectly aware of Kerry’s grades before the last election despite being below voting age. Anyone with sufficient curiosity and a minute of free time could’ve looked it up. Also, it is my general perception that FOX is possibly the worst network in terms of propaganda, seeing how they like to drive network-wide talking points into the heads of millions of Americans daily. Granted, I don’t get my information by these corporate-driven major networks, but it is my general perception nonetheless. I also think that trying to portray this moment in time as economically well-off would be a mistake, but that’s a debate in and of itself.
Well, I’ve babbled too much already; just wanted to say that I very much agree with your main point: why do these media companies think they can get away with this? Why do Americans let them? Your points are well-made.
Angelbaby | Mar 9, 2008 | Reply
Wow, I have always believed that the media tells us what they want us to hear. There is usually very little truth in what they tell us. It is all sensationalism at it’s best! They just want the ratings, that’s all. They don’t research anything anymore.
I don’t like Bush, not because of his grades.
I have something at my site for you.
Love and Blessings,
AngelBaby
spongekill | Mar 20, 2008 | Reply
i appreciate your point about how dishonest the media is, but anyone with half a brain knows this already. not quite the sickening expose you seem to want it to be. i don’t feel duped, because i never really cared about what Bush’s grades were, i was more concerned about the avalanche of bullshit flowing from his administration that began right after 9/11 and has continued unabated ever since.
people don’t rag on Bush for being a moron after hearing it on the news, they rag on Bush for trashing the constitution, throwing the country blindly into bad decision after bad decision, lying constantly, and shamelessly exploiting public opinion with MUCH more dangerous propaganda than what you claim to be exposing here (meaningless color coded threat levels, anyone???). The fact that he’s stubborn, myopic, and doesn’t appear to be very intelligent in general is just the icing on the cake.
you’re right to call out media bias, but if you think the liberal media’s spin on Bush’s intelligence and statistics like the unemployment rating are driving his approval rating, you’re neglecting a very large part of the picture.
no more | May 30, 2008 | Reply
the media in europe is far left, too. they don’t even have anything like fox news. at least we can see both ends of the spectrum here. I like the “option” of our media. even though, all media in america is owned by about five major corporations.
RacFos | Jun 11, 2008 | Reply
In this day and age school grades are no reflection of a persons intelligence. I don’t have any grades because I was home educated, does this make me an idiot? No, it means that I probably had a better education than most school goers. I was taught to like learning, to hunger for knowledge, to want to constantly improve my mind. As we get older many people say the best days of their lives were school, because, looking back they realise that their school days were in fact their easiest days. And we all know how much we all like ease!
When you are young and at school you, generally speaking, hate it. You dislike your teachers, you don’t like doing what you’re told, you rebel. Not drastically but at some point all students will go through some form of rebellion however minor or major.
So what if Bush and Kerry had C grades? It doesn’t mean that they know any less than other people or that they are incapable of making decision that will affect millions of lives.
For a nation that is so hung up on the importance of schooling and grading please explain why most of our students don’t know anything? There’s a video on youtube of a 17ish girl explaining that WWII came about because the South had slaves and the North didn’t…!
In the time that I did spend at state schools I found that our youngsters are being taught what they need to know to pass their exams. Surely and exam is meant to be a measure of how much information you have ingested? How insidious then that all students entering an examination hall know what they are going to be examined on. I sat an English exam where I was told to use the word “homo-erotic” as it would increase my grade! A real exam is completely random and not preprepared in collaboration with teachers so that they can cut the amount of work that they do in the classroom by focusing only on the topics their students will be questioned on.
Grades are meaningless and most definitely NOT a measure of anyone’s intelligence. Enough said.
(Oh and I’m 19 by the way, so for all those thinking that I’m some relic from the dark ages hating on the modern world… I’m not!)
Mummy | Oct 29, 2008 | Reply
I don’t know why everyone is so down on President Bush. I for one think he has done a pretty good job considering the media puts him down all the time. I never believe the media anyway and haven’t for a very long time. If you think President Bush has not been a good president just wait and see what is going to happen if Obama gets elected. The Bush Admin. will seem like a picnic compared to all the freedoms we will lose if Obama gets elected. If it wasn’t for the media , President Bush’s ratings would be a lot higher than they are. It is the people that are stupid enough to believe everything they hear. The economy has not been as bad as the media has been saying for a long time. If the christian people don’t stand up for what is right we will gradually lose all of our religious freedoms that we know today. We are not far from it now. Obama can’t even prove he is a United States citizen. Should anyone that is not a United State citizen run for President, the highest office of our country? This country was founded because of religious freedoms and the right to worship God. If we lose this right my fellow americans we have lost it all. We will be just like Russia and communist with no rights at all. I for one do not want to see this happen. Obama wants to raise our taxes, socialize our healthcare and no telling what else. President Bush is an intelligent person but no president can do everything he wants to. That is why we have a Congress and a house and a senate to balance a democratic society so any one person doesn’t have too much power. The media always picks out a fault about anyone on the right and talks about it until we are sick of hearing it. I’m glad God gave me since enough not to believe everything I hear. I agree with you. If we are not careful, the media will eventually be the ruination of our country among other things. The whole world is in terrible turmoil and it boils down to one thing – THE COMING OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. HE IS COMING SOON TO PUT AN END TO IT ALL. PRAISE THE LORD! EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE SAVED AND READY TO GO WHEN HE COMES.