How words can manipulate us

Wikipedia; Manual of Style/Words to watch:
(Though I have not used quotation marks, all text in this post has been cut and pasted from the Wikipedia article linked.) 
Words that may introduce bias

Puffery

... legendary, great, eminent, visionary, outstanding, leading, celebrated, cutting-edge, extraordinary, brilliant, famous, renowned, remarkable, prestigious, world-class, respected, notable, virtuoso ...

• Peacock example:

• Bob Dylan is the defining figure of the 1960s counterculture and a brilliant songwriter.

• Just the facts:

• Dylan was included in Time's 100: The Most Important People of the Century, where he was called "master poet, caustic social critic and intrepid, guiding spirit of the counterculture generation".^[2] By the mid-1970s, his songs had been covered by hundreds of other artists.^[3]

Contentious labels

... cult, racist, perverted, sect, fundamentalist, heretic, extremist, denialist, terrorist, freedom fighter, myth, pseudo-, -gate, controversial ...

Unsupported attributions 

... some people say, many scholars state, it is believed, many are of the opinion, most feel, experts declare, it is often reported, it is widely thought, research has shown, science says ...

Phrases such as these present the appearance of support for statements but can deny the reader the opportunity to assess the source of the viewpoint. They are referred to as "weasel words" by Wikipedia contributors. They can pad out sentences without adding any useful information and may disguise a biased view. Claims about what people say, think, feel, or believe, and what has been shown, demonstrated, or proved should be clearly attributed.^[5]

The examples given above are not automatically weasel words, as they may also be used in the lead section of an article or in a topic sentenceof a paragraph, where the article body or the rest of the paragraph supplies attribution.

Expressions of doubt  

... supposed, purported, alleged, accused, so-called ...

Editorializing  

... notably, interestingly, it should be noted, clearly, certainly, without a doubt, of course, fortunately, happily, unfortunately, tragically, untimely ...

Bullies in the news

Townhall on bullies

It Was the Power, Stupid!

Victor Davis Hanson  "But, of course, the Obama (who attacked each and every element of the war on terror as a legislator and senator) Left never had any principled objection at all. Instead, whatever Bush was for, they were in Pavlovian fashion against. I can say that without a charge of cynicism, because after January 2009, Obama embraced or expanded every Bush-Cheney protocol that he inherited. In response, the anti-war Left simply kept silent, or indeed vanished, or went to work extending the anti-terrorism agenda. Guantanamo Bay, in other words, was a national sin until the mid-morning of January 20, 2009."

In the same article, Mr. Hanson weaves in the Martin-Zimmerman case:
"Perhaps before the second-degree-murder charge is thrown out, the prosecution can so entangle Zimmerman in testimony that they can recharge him with perjury or conspiracy and then plea bargain him down to a year or two. The case is now not concerned with justice, but with politics, defusing threats of violence, and salvaging the careers of so many who so foolishly rushed to judgment."

Carney Struggles After Being Hammered On Hypocrisy of Obama Attacking Romney’s Private Equity Work Then Attending Fundraiser At Top Private Equity Exec’s Home…

Weasel Zippers  "I almost (key word being almost) feel bad for Carney, he’s being put in an unwinnable situation by the Obama campaign attacking and embracing private equity on the same day."

Rick Moran: Dear Barry: About that Bain Capital attack ad...  

Lavine, according to the Los Angeles Times, is a top Obama bundler and a managing director at . Lavine, who has raised over $100,000 for the president, was at the firm when GST Steel declared bankruptcy. So according to the Obama team's logic, Romney, who had left Bain, is responsible for GST Steel's demise, but Lavine, who was there, is not? Expect to hear more about this connection.

"We've got to elect Romney president. If he can affect the fortunes of a company two years after his departure from the helm, just think of what he can do remotely to terrorists."
More on this subject here: Former steel worker Joe Soptic, who was prominently featured in President Obama's new anti-Romney ad, is actually a familiar face on the anti-Bain beat.

Along these same lines: White House Says Obama Worth As Much As $10 Million…

"He has a hefty stake in JP Morgan Chase, the megabank that just made a bad $2 billion bet. Obama has an account worth between $500,000 and $1 million.

"Despite the nation’s $15.6 trillion debt, he is a believer in government paper. More than half his assets are in Treasury bills and notes.

"The disclosure statement lists assets and liabilities in dollar ranges, so pinpointing the president’s net worth is difficult. His assets appear to tally between $2.6 million and $9.9 million. He holds a mortgage on his Chicago home of $500,000 to $1 million." Weasel Zippers

A Censored Race War

Thomas Sowell  "...Similar episodes of unprovoked violence by young black gangs against white people chosen at random on beaches, in shopping malls, or in other public places have occurred in Philadelphia, New York, Denver, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington, Los Angeles, and other places across the country. Both the authorities and the media tend to try to sweep these episodes under the rug."....
"A wave of such attacks in Chicago were reported, but not the race of the attackers or victims. Media outlets that do not report the race of people committing crimes nevertheless report racial disparities in imprisonment and write heated editorials blaming the criminal-justice system."
...."These latter would include not only race hustlers like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson but also lesser-known people in the media, in educational institutions, and elsewhere who hype grievances and make all the problems of blacks the fault of whites. Some of these people may think that they are doing blacks a favor. But it is no favor to anyone who lags behind to turn their energies from the task of improving and advancing themselves to the task of lashing out at others.

"These others extend beyond whites. Asian-American schoolchildren in New York and Philadelphia have for years been beaten up by their black classmates. But people in the mainstream media who go ballistic if some kid says something unkind on the Internet about a homosexual classmate nevertheless hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil when Asian-American youngsters are victims of violence.

"Those who automatically say that the social pathology of the ghetto is due to poverty, discrimination, and the like cannot explain why such pathology was far less prevalent in the 1950s, when poverty and discrimination were worse. But there were not nearly as many grievance mongers and race hustlers then."

U.S. Army soldier brutally beaten in South Tampa "The victim was not able to tell police much more: they're all in their late teens to early 20's. Two were black men with an average build, police said. One attacker was possibly Hispanic, also with an average build. The fourth man was also black, but with a heavier build."

conservativeblackchick: The recent killing of Trayvon Martin needs more investigation. But where's the outrage over the daily scourge of black-on-black crime?

"The Martin case is very different from the Emmett Till case, in which a white segregationist Mississippi society approved of the murder of a black child. Black America needs to get out of the rut of replaying racial injustices of the past. 

"All minority parents fear that children who embrace "gangsta" fashion, tattoos and a thug attitude will be prejudged as criminal."  Juan Williams is a political analyst for Fox News and a columnist for the Hill.

Oct 14, 2011 http://www.conservativedailynews.com/2011/10/race-cards-3/

Why Democrats must have African-Americans feel they are the victims of white oppresson: House Dems trained to make race the issue  "Wiley urged Democrats to appeal to "white swing voters while building support among voters of color." She explained that Democratic outreach to white voters needs to communicate that "people of color are in pain and it's the same pain I, as a White person, would or do feel. It's [about] humanizing people of color." "

Forward, led by the Obamites!

zappatrust

Israel Is Today's 1940 Britain

Ken Blackwell  "We Americans may well owe our liberty to Churchill and the RAF. But there was not a single American in the sandbagged shelter deep beneath London’s Treasury Building when Winston Churchill guided his War Cabinet’s brave resistance to Hitler tyranny.
"Today, we are in similar peril. Prime Minister Benjamin leads the only democracy in the Mideast. In agreeing with the opposition Kadima party to postpone elections, Netanyahu has created in effect the national government that Churchill was called upon to lead in World War II. United, Israelis stand against the Iranian threat.  

"In Iran, the clerics declare that the in-gathering of Jews from Russia, Europe, and the Arab lands into “the Zionist entity” has been an act of God. “It saves us the trouble of hunting them down,” say the mullahs. Like Hitler, they openly call for the extermination of the Jews. Like Hitler, they view America with hatred and suspicion."

Churchill’s Earliest Warning About Hitler

Winston Churchill Speech We Shall Never Surrender part 1
Winston Churchill: We Shall Fight On The Beaches:

Churchill's determination and eloquence silenced the "occupiers" and the "Code Pinkers" of his time. With God's grace, the same will happen to them when Israel fights for her life, but I see no trace of Roosevelt or Churchill in the present American government today that would come to the aid of Israel.

This was where all that "Hope and Change" was headed anyway

Dick Morris.com

More on the media

Truth in Labeling: Why Not Just Call The Media Democrats?   "The reality is when a Republican is interviewed or a Republican position is reported, it is actually a Democrat interviewing or reporting on the issue.  ....This opportunity for Democratic reporters to slant their coverage without explicitly revealing their prejudice is enormous.  Common tricks that reporters use to slant a story are the selection of facts, which "experts" are called upon for quotes, adjectives describing people or events, and many more.  An explicit label or repositioning of the reporter and media outlet would be a constant reminder to a busy public that the information being supplied is actually from a partisan Democrat parading as fair and objective reporter.  The public will be able assign their own context and weight to the story based on the bias of the reporting source.  Over time the Democratic media's power and influence will greatly diminish."

Washington Post Ombudsman Gives Up Any Pretense of Credibility 

"Pexton also admits that the Post timed the story to help the president.

The other criticisms are that this story was published knowing that President Obama was going to announce his shift in favor of gay marriage. The allegation is that somehow The Post is working with the White House to time the story.

Do I think The Post took advantage of the timing? Yes. Vice President Biden had telegraphed the president’s position on gay marriage just days earlier. This story on Romney was in preparation for three weeks. It is part of a series of biographical stories on Romney being written by Horowitz and others and edited by The Post’s Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and associate editor, David Maraniss, who is known for his best- selling biographies of major U.S. political figures.

Ed Driscoll: Regarding ‘Our First Gay President’ and Other Goofy Recent Newsweekly Covers   "Once Matt Drudge blew open the story of Bill Clinton’s dalliances with Monica Lewinsky, a story that Newsweek attempted to suppress, the walls quickly began to fall, and savvy news consumers quickly began to receive their news elsewhere — including from news aggregation sites such as Drudge and Instapundit, which can be and are updated numerous times a day, unlike the increasingly lethargic schedule of the newsweeklies."

Head Games  "Think about it: when was the last time you heard any story embarrassing to the Obama  administration pursued to an actual conclusion?" 

CNN's Soledad O’Brien Beclowns Herself on National TV  "You won’t be surprised to learn that she was just pretty much reciting the Wikipedia definition of critical race theory (CRT). (Which apparently has changed throughout the day today as the Arbiters of Truth and Knowledge attempted to strip out any references to ‘white superiority’.)

Newsweek columnist Michelle Goldberg spoke out against the scourge of motherhood on MSNBC’s Up with Chris Hayes.  "She attacked Ann Romney for talking about the glories of being a mom – on Mother’s Day, no less –  her with Hitler and Stalin:"...


CNN's Don Lemon Compares Mitt Romney to 60s Segregationist George Wallace  "At the beginning of a CNN Newsroom segment he calls "No Talking Points," Lemon played a clip of Wallace saying in 1963, "I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever" followed by Romney saying Saturday, "Marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman" "

Obama's Hawaii press conference with his slobbering sycophants.  More here.

CNN WH Correspondent Asks Obama if GOP Candidates Are 'Uninformed, Out of Touch, or Irresponsible' (Video)  
"And this is the type of hard-nosed journalist the supposedly most trusted name in news has as a White House correspondent.

"Imagine for a moment how much better the country would be doing if there were real questions asked at these events."

Iran's - and the left's - contempt of Israel

http://terrellaftermath.com/


Editorial in the Jerusalem Post:   In 1942, George Orwell said that “so-called peace propaganda is just as dishonest," intellectually disgusting as war propaganda.

"Orwell was intrigued by the “psychological processes by which pacifists who started out with an alleged horror of violence end up with a marked tendency to be fascinated by the success and power of Nazism.”
"“Even those who don’t,” he wrote, “imagine that one can somehow ‘overcome’ the German Army by lying on one’s back” and they shun “discussion of what the world would actually be like if the Axis dominated it.”
"Sound familiar? It should."
....
"Orwell regarded them as “objectively pro- Fascist. This is elementary commonsense. If you hamper the war effort of one side, you automatically help that of the other. Nor is there any real way of remaining outside such a war as the present one. In practice, he that is not with me is against me.” "

The final, official report on the bin Laden raid by the President

Obama watched Bin Laden die on live video as shoot-out beamed to White House

The president makes his report public: The real story as it came down.....Now you know!

Ron Paul would have wanted us to be nice to Osama so he would not be a threat. I went for the final solution because Paul, Romney and Bush would not have done it - the press would have roasted Bush for not arresting Osama and reading him his rights while my attorney general Eric Holder would have put Bush's SEALs on trial.

Hat tip to Harley Standlee; Placerville, Ca (Hangtown)

The Beholden State/ How public-sector unions broke California

Gov. Scott Walker, California has needed you for years!
This was 2010: The Manhattan Institute

"The camera focuses on an official of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), California’s largest public-employee union, sitting in a legislative chamber and speaking into a microphone. “We helped to get you into office, and we got a good memory,” she says matter-of-factly to the elected officials outside the shot. “Come November, if you don’t back our program, we’ll get you out of office.’ "

....How public employees became members of the elite class in a declining California offers a cautionary tale to the rest of the country, where the same process is happening in slower motion. The story starts half a century ago, when California public workers won bargaining rights and quickly learned how to elect their own bosses—that is, sympathetic politicians who would grant them outsize pay and benefits in exchange for their support. 
...."It will take an enormous effort to roll back decades of political and economic gains by government unions. But the status quo is unsustainable. And at long last, Californians are beginning to understand the connection between that status quo and the corruption at the heart of their politics." 
 California will need courageous politicians in Sacramento who are prepared for angry union members to occupy the capitol building as in Wisconsin; courage also to stand up to a scathing leftist press and to demagogic Democrats in the state legislature and their useful idiots on college campuses. TD

http://www.calwatchdog.com/2012/05/07/welcome-to-california/

This is 2012: Shortfall in California’s Budget Swells to $16 Billion  "Mr. Brown disclosed the news in a video that had all the trappings of a campaign announcement. In it, he aggressively accounted for the steps he said he had taken to try to scale back a $26 billion deficit he found upon taking office. And he urged viewers to back an initiative he is putting on the November ballot that would increase sales taxes by 0.25 percent and impose an income tax surcharge on wealthy Californians to try to stave off more cuts."

.calwatchdog.com