I'm doing a project for my Web Wisdom class on how the media manipulates the public. The point is to discuss common tactics used on television, in magazines and in the papers to sway the reader in the direction of the author in areas of politics, social policy or government affairs.

While reading one article that I found at Wikipedia, it occurred to me that there is a fine line between manipulation and telling the truth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media-manipulation contains an article written by Anup Shah which repeatedly uses the U.S. Government as an example when it refers to pre-packaged media which doesn't include identifiable sources. The author states ... "A fear raised now is that people may become more suspicious of the open press."

Give me a break! If it's one thing I've discovered, it's that ALL media--news channels, radio stations, websites--have always told the story from their point of view. I never see "sourced out by Left-Wing Democratic Liberals" at the end of each CNN news cast or Internet article. What difference does it make if the U.S. Government provides news releases to public news stations without a recorded source at the end? I've rarely ever seen this happen with any network on any type of news story.

My point is that as long as the article contains the truth and doesn't intentionally twist information to manipulate the truth, the article is credible and is not a form of trickery.