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Is there an agenda?

Several of us noticed a flurry of anti-simon articles like Bill Simon's Enron Ties a little over a week ago. Then this poll comes out three days later.

This all seemed orchestrated to me.

Well, it's The Nation's duty to try and motivate their base. It was a revoltingly sloppy article, though; as I said in my response to it, they'll have to try a lot harder to convince a reasonable man that Simon has authentic ties to Enron.

This all seemed orchestrated to me.

Well, I think that it is, and it isn't at the same time. The Davis campaign is certainly playing to its natural allies in the media, but most reporting (with the exception of the LA times, that is frankly partisan in this election) is probably just done with blinders on. Goldberg's book "Bias" outlines this process very convincingly, and relatively clearly.

So, who cares how this is implemented? I subscribe to the maxim "know your opponent", to better counter him. In this case, the effect of the whispering campaign is to attempt to demoralize Simon's core consitutency, and depress fundraising efforts. Since in many cases the bias may be unconcious, letters to the editor, and call-ins to talk radio would be particularly effective, IMHO. Of course, with the LA Times, this is not applicable.