Youth find more truth in Eminem than Bush
Gary Younge in New York
Friday July 18, 2003
The Guardian
Americans don't care what Europe thinks of them and believe their children find more truth in Eminem's lyrics than the speeches of George Bush.
Those are the conclusions of an online poll of more than 1,000 people that reveals an insular, parochial nation which is growing ever more cynical about its own legislators and opinion-formers.
Remarkably, 53% agreed that "America's youth find more 'truth' in Eminem's lyrics than in President Bush's speeches', according to the survey conducted by the New York advertising agency Euro RSCG.
Mr Bush has traditionally scored well on trust but recent polls show that his credibility has been diminished by the failure to find weapons of mass destruction and false statements made in his state of the union speech about Iraq's attempts to procure nuclear weapons material from Niger.
"I think Eminem speaks of the street while the idea that politicians are people you can always trust gets weaker and weaker," says Marian Salzman, chief strategy officer at Euro RSCG. "People think you just have to keep asking questions and they don't always believe the answers." It is not clear where they hope to get the answers from, however, as the media does not have the people's trust either.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1000344,00.html