Signs of Change

It also takes a resistance to the facts on the ground.

As Cam Simpson writes in Chicago Tribune's Washington blog, "Repeated suggestions by the White House and friendly commentators that the news media's selective displays of terrorist attacks in Iraq are warping American public opinion" are belied by the U.S. State Department's own recent Country Report on Human Rights Practices for Iraq .

Simpson offers some excerpts:

-- "Insurgents and terrorists killed thousands of citizens . . . . Using intimidation and violence, they kidnapped and killed government officials and workers, common citizens, party activists participating in the electoral process, civil society activists, members of security forces, and members of the armed forces, as well as foreigners."

-- "Bombings, executions, killings, kidnappings, shootings, and intimidation were a daily occurrence throughout all regions and sectors of society. An illustrative list of these attacks, even a highly selective one, could scarcely reflect the broad dimension of the violence."

Simpson concludes: "In other words, this report, just two weeks old, contradicts the very raison d'être of the current White House public relations campaign on Iraq -- to convince Americans that the 'reality' in Iraq is far better than the constant stream of bad news they see on their televisions every night.

"If anything, the State Department's candid assessments would seem to indicate that things might be far worse than the press is currently able to report, given the fact that journalists are hampered by the same violence racking everyone else in the nation."

But one sign of how the new script might play -- at least among Bush's historical base -- came during Bush's talk yesterday in West Virginia, when a woman in the audience complained that "it seems that our major media networks don't want to portray the good" news from Iraq. Her question drew a standing ovation.

Is Anyone Listening?

Here's the transcript of Bush's talk in West Virginia yesterday.

Richard Wolffe and Holly Bailey write for Newsweek: "Some GOP officials privately question whether Bush's media push is helping or hurting. . . . 'Every time the White House puts out a story that the president will be talking about the war and the new strategy behind it, it's the same speech,' says the GOP aide, who declined to be named while criticizing the White House. 'This is like their eighth time they've rolled out this process, and it's had no impact beyond lower poll numbers.' "

Yesterday's speech was billed by the White House as one in a news series of major speeches on the strategy for victory in Iraq.

But in a telling move, The Washington Post didn't even write a story about it. (Though Bush's response to a question about the case of an Afghan man who could be prosecuted and even put to death for converting to Christianity did make it into Pamela Constable 's story on that subject.)