In trying to make stick the false claim of a “liberal media” (when in fact a majority of editors and publishers, who control the way news is presented, are conservative), those on the right wing are attempting to control the perception of media to their benefit. Similarly, when press reports don’t go their way, presidents try to change perception of the media by mounting efforts to challenge how they are represented (like Bush has with his recent “things are going super in Iraq, really” campaign), again to their political benefit.

But now, the Republican party is not just content to alter perception–this political party wants a direct hand in an artistic representation of history, in the form of the upcoming mini-series, “The Reagans.” Pressure is mounting from the party to represent Reagan the way they want him represented; they have not only asked to view it beforehand, but they say that if it doesn’t meet with their approval, they want the network to run a banner under the picture every 10 minutes claiming the series is not accurate (despite the fact that this is drama, not a documentary, and so that it is not fully accurate is a given)–and the GOP will try to buy air time during the series to run rebuttal ads.

The gist is presented here, but a simple Google News search for “The Reagans” will demonstrate the all-out offensive by the conservative media to do more than just alter perception about this series.

The major advance in this war on perception was set, quite appropriately, in the days of Reagan, and surged more than a decade ago with offensives on the language, such as the senior Bush trying to make “liberal” a dirty word, or Newt Gingrich’s memo to Republicans on how to use language as a weapon.

There is an effort to control the way we see and process information; it is a political effort–and it is most decidedly not liberal.