Politics

President Bush's advisers, led by Karl Rove, are "planning a sprint of a campaign that would start, at least officially, with his acceptance speech at the Republican convention, a speech now set for Sept. 2 [2004]. ... Mr. Bush's advisers said they chose the date so the event would flow into the commemorations of the third anniversary of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. ... The strategy ... is intended to highlight what Mr.

An anti-Semitic web site called the "Barnes Report" is distributing fake whistleblower memos on media bias in the Iraq war that attempt to exploit public skepticism about the accuracy of U.S. news coverage. Excerpts from the alleged memos appear on a series of web pages titled "Controlling the News." The "memos" instruct reporters to avoid showing scenes of violence from the war and to stress images that depict U.S. policy in a favorable light.

"Nearly every military-related film
to reach theaters this year has been a box-office
disappointment, leaving some in Hollywood to question how
much the 24-hour news coverage of the Iraq invasion has
dimmed the public appetite for images of combat," and "some critics suggest that
moviegoers are staying away because they have plenty of
real-time war action already on cable and network news
programs. 'When television came on with 24-hour news channels, it
changed what we needed,' said Jeanine Basinger, chairman of

"Over the last six months, the
Republican Party has subtly refocused its message on the
environment, an issue that a party strategist Frank Luntz called 'the
single biggest vulnerability for the Republicans and
especially for George Bush' in a memorandum encouraging the
new approach. The Republicans, as the memorandum advised them, have
softened their language to appeal to suburban voters,
speaking out for protecting national parks and forests,