Below the Fold for June 1

Let's check out some political stories we found Below the Fold:

The People Speak

Interesting trends from the world of public opinion research: Compare the diverging paths of reporters and members of the military. The percentage of Americans who have confidence in our armed services has jumped by nearly a third since 1975, to an incredible 79 percent.

Meanwhile, trust in the press has plummeted to a pathetic 36 percent, barely higher than the all-time low of 32 percent during the 2000 presidential election recount.

Words Matter

The next story offers a case study: Vanity Fair has published, to great fanfare, a Sam Tannehaus piece about the Bush White House and its foreign policy. The normally thorough Tannehaus generated nationwide headlines with a quote that turns out to have been distorted. It cites Deputy Defense Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz (search) on the topic of the president's case against Saddam. Here's the quote:

“Bureaucratic reasons we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could agree on."

He left out the remainder of the quote, which we will supply:

"But there have always been three fundamental concerns. One is weapons of mass destruction, the second is support for terrorism, the third is the criminal treatment of the Iraqi people. Actually, I guess you could say there's a fourth overriding one which is the connection between the first two."

A Picture Worth $50 Million?

Barbra Streisand has decided to go legal on photographer Kenneth Adelman, who has committed the sin of trying to photograph the California coastline for the edification of conservationalists, researchers and the U.S. Geological Service.

Ms. Streisand says some photos show entry points to her property and details of her residence. She filed a $50 million suit to stop the distribution of the pictures.