About six months ago, my children came home from school with a lengthy questionnaire that I was requested to fill out. All the schools in New Brunswick had it. I read it quickly, then slowed down. It was the most absurd, useless and incompetent questionnaire I had ever seen. One sample question was typical.

"Is your child's teacher working hard to improve standards of education?"

I have a blog that so far deals mostly with lying and propaganda in our news media. I'm always looking for examples of how our news media act as pimps for governments or ownership or ideologies. Good example in today's Globe and Mail. Front page. May 14

It's a big picture of two girls in a classroom. They're lively and smiling at each other. Below, in big letters. it says Haitian children are finding safety and help in recovering from trauma in their schools.

So, I'm cleaning off the table of the multiple flyers that are inserted weekly in our local rag - you know the ones, they scream "death to trees, death to trees" but I digress - and what do my wondering eyes discover a flyer from my MP, the Honourable Tony Clement, extolling the virtues of the Home Renovation Tax Credit with great big bold blocks screaming, something like those trees but with more effect, IT'S WORKING, which may or may not be true but that is not what really triggers my old brain.

I know I've referred to it before, but I was struck by two pieces of propganda in the last two days maquerading as news.

Today, it was a story about the "infamous" AK-47 rifle. It reminded me of a Reader's digest story about the same gun, and how it was a terrible killer.

I was watching the news on TV tonight - CBC, I think - when I heard a statement that was so ordinary, it almost blew by me. It was propaganda delivered as news. And I'm sure it was not deliberate. I'm sure it was just an example of how our perceptions get in the way of understanding what it really going on.

I've read about various public transport commissions banning the atheist bus ad on the basis it might offend. In my opinion, the way the advert is stated is probably more truthful than the majority of adverts for women's shoes or men's colognes.

There is talk of talking this issue to court as a matter of free speech.

But here is the twist; imagine if all stated claims of 'truth' required substantiation by evidence. A sort of truth-in-advertising social contract out of respect for the public eyeball.