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I never forgot how easily and deftly the media could lie and in the process simply eviscerate a conservative.

With only three TV networks it was easy to control and shape the "news". The coverage of the civil rights marches convinced the rest of that country the Faubus, Maddox, and Bull Conner were representative of the entire south, a prejuidice passed on and alive to this day.

The anti Goldwater commercial of the little girl picking daisies with a mushroom cloud in the back, IIRC, was broadcast only once as a paid commercial but was played repeatedly on prime time news. Nice tactic on several levels; plausabile deniability, "We immediately pulled the ad" cloaking themselves in the false virtue that has become their hallmark; huge campaign budget savings, prime time ads were very expensivee; and the lasting icon, GOP = Dr. Strangelove mad bombers.

Not too long ago, in a bourbon fueled discussion with friends, the subject of mass news presentations before the then new television medium arose. We realized that so much was derived from Movietone News played at the local theaters. We all had vivid memories of the siege of Dien Bien Phu from our pre-teen years. Before some of us even had TV's. And came the realization that the producers and editors of these news reels came from the left wing cadres that produced the WWII news and propaganda films.

Same as it ever was. Just finely honed.

When Hitler invaded Russia, Churchill said to the the House of Commons, "if Hitler had invaded hell I would at least make a friendly reference to the devil" thus defending his aligning England with Joseph Stalin one of the great mass murderers of the 20th century and a regime which Churchill had bitterly opposed even at the risk of his fragile political standing since 1918.

I think history has judged Churchill right on this issue although even Churchill recognized that he was forced by the sheer magnitude of threat which Hitler posed to England who stood alone with the Empire to make alliances against Hitler where he could.

But let us suppose that Hitler contrived a reverse Molotov/Ribbentrop pact with England and Churchill had announced that England was about to make common cause with Germany to drive Soviet Union out of Poland which it had ruthlessly attacked and occupied.

Who can believe that the propaganda of World War II would have been nearly so enthusiastic had it been cast against a leftist enemy, "uncle Joe" Stalin and who can believe that it would have been nearly so blind to Hitler's crimes as it was to Stalin's crimes? This bias has extended well into the Cold War and a we see its consequences in the Korea war, in the Vietnam War and in the war over Star Wars.

I cannot believe that Republican candidates do not devote a much larger share of their war chests to comedy writers who can satire Democrats and give Republicans a panache of coolness which candidates like Romney, McCain and Bob Dole so obviously lacked. They need something to break through the media and satire is the obvious choice. It would only cost a fraction of what they spend in repetitive TV ads which obviously are not working.