COMPLICIT MEDIA

How disheartening to see the paper of record shovel the B.S. put forward by the established misleader-in-chief in his latest propagandist push, er, I mean, State of the Union.

Part of the proposed $2.57 trillion budget — which doesn't include allocations for sustained military action in Iraq (i.e., as large a fallacy as one can make by omission) — includes cutting the less than one-tenth of 1 percent ($257 million) it takes to run Even Start.

The president said the 16-year-old program, which serves low-income children of illiterate parents, was ineffective.

"I can't think of anybody in the Congress who is not for helping low-income families become literate," Mr. Bush told the crowd, which included the chief executives of Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler. "The problem is, is that after three separate evaluations it has become abundantly clear that the program is not succeeding."

As 49 percent of the country realizes, just because he says it doesn't make it true.

The Times story incorporates meaningless quotes but no real, objective assessment. Slate's "Today's Papers" conducts a cursory Google search and finds a government-commissioned study that concludes:

On the whole, Even Start projects are meeting their legislative mandate. They recruit and serve needy families. And, a high percentage of families take part in core services and receive an amount of service that compares favorably with other existing programs.

Spoon-fed B.S. is still B.S.