"It is designed to circumvent the campaign-finance restrictions, which would bar us from communicating to our members before elections," explained a National Rifle Association spokesperson about the pro-gun lobby group's recently launched news service.

Citing a recent poll which found 65% of respondents feel "constantly bombarded with too much" advertising and 61% think marketing is "out of control," Commercial Alert's director writes: "The main reason, I suspect, is that the [marketing] industry abides no limits or boundaries...

In the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, a new survey by the University of Maryland shows that 57 percent of the American people continue to believe Saddam Hussein gave "substantial support" to al-Qaeda before the war with Iraq. "Why would so many Americans cling to patently false beliefs?" asks history professor Juan Cole. "One can only speculate of course. But I would suggest that the two-party system in the US has produced a two-party epistemology. Epistemology is the study of how we know what we know.