PERSISTENCE of MYTH: the "Major Media" EXPLOITS public's tendency to confuse facts and myths....

PERSISTANCE OF MYTH: the public is INHERENTLY PREDISPOSED to remember the EXACT OPPOSITE re facts posted by the CDC (Center for Disease Control) about the flu virus.
This tendency of the public to CONFUSE facts, and to even INVERT the CDC's refutation of a myth by "remembering" the CDC flier as SUPPORTING that myth; illustrates the potential for the American public to be MISINFORMED; and specifically the opportunities of the "Major Media" TO MISINFORM readers, viewers, and listeners, with malice aforethought.

The Right-Wing corporate/theological/political alliance has EMBRACED this ability to MISINFORM American citizens to such an extent, that not only do millions of Americans STILL BELIEVE that Saddam Hussein and Iraq were somehow tied to the 9-11 terror attacks that were led by Saudi fundamentalists (Saddam's Baathist regime, while Muslim, was secular/socialists, and detested religious fundamentalism of all stripes), but EVERY TIME that Osama bin Laden rolls out a new video, the American press/media SLAVISHLY anaylzes the video for meaning and context - while NEGLECTING to remind viewers that President Bush at one time promised to "GET OSAMA bin LADEN DEAD OR ALIVE!", and yet, FOUR FULL ELECTION cycles, and BILLIONS and BILLIONS of dollars spent on the "WAR ON TERROR" LATER, the Al Qaida leader is still sending videos to America to influence American elections and politics!

In short, the America public has a natural tendency to forget, invert, "flip," or mis-remember important facts on complex subjects; and the American corporate whore media is WALLOWING in its ability to MISINFORM or PROPAGANDIZE American citizens... from issues of public health to lies-to--war to the criminal offenses of the Bush-Cheney White House, the "major media" PREFERS MISINFORMED VIEWERS, and seldom works to dispell those mistaken assumptions.

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Persistence of Myths Could Alter Public Policy Approach
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 4, 2007; Page A03
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/03/AR2007090300933.html

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently issued a flier to combat myths about the flu vaccine. It recited various commonly held views and labeled them either "true" or "false." Among those identified as false were statements such as "The side effects are worse than the flu" and "Only older people need flu vaccine."

When University of Michigan social psychologist Norbert Schwarz had volunteers read the CDC flier, however, he found that within 30 minutes, older people misremembered 28 percent of the false statements as true. Three days later, they remembered 40 percent of the myths as factual.