During President Bush's administration, conservatives used the term "liberal media" disparagingly, even though the press was never liberal. Under direction from Karl Rove, they learned to master spin and continue to do so today with vitriol and impunity. In a Letter to the Editor on Saturday, Todd Tanney of Sarasota said it best: "the conservative propaganda machine is far more adept at attack, smear, innuendo, misrepresentation and creating fear (mostly false) than anything on the left."

Last week there was a plethora of propaganda surrounding President Obama's address to school. Glenn Beck went off on his "indoctrination" rant, warning of secret private armies even though this conspiracy is not supported by facts. WorldNetDaily said Obama's planned speech "raises the specter of the Civilian National Security Force" and promoted comparisons to Hitler's youth brigade. Mark Steyn said the speech is part of a "cult of personality," and NewsBusters' Mark Finkelstein ranted about the striking similarity between President Obama's plan to encourage students to work hard and Chairman Mao's leadership of China . Radio host Tammy Bruce asked parents to keep their kids out of school so they wouldn't be indoctrinated.

Here comes the spin: Even though none of this happened, the conservative media claimed victory stating that the White House had secretly changed the speech in response. Listen to Florida Republican Party chairman Jim Greer's assertion that Obama altered his speech after "the White House got caught with their hand in the cookie jar."

 Following this spin, conservative media got busy enshrining a new hero, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) who screamed "You lie," in the middle of President Obama's address to Congress on Health Care Reform, even though Wilson was not factual. Listen to Rush Limbaugh who wished Wilson hadn't apologized.

But what is disconcerting is the way the more "legitimate" press tried to "balance" reports of this incident, in spite of the fact that Wilson was wrong. Fox tried to convince viewers that Nancy Pelosi's criticisms of the CIA were no different from Wilson 's heckling of the president on the House floor. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post compared Wilson 's verbal attack on the president to Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), who "insisted on making a victory sign with his hand and waving it at Obama."

 You may wonder why I are concerned. This type of media coverage is symptomatic of a broken media culture. We fear that the press is promoting a group of fringe conservatives who use insults, falsehoods, and who make allegations without facts, and continue to be treated as major players in the reporting of news.