About a month ago in this space, I told you that the New York Times had rigged a poll about Americans wanting to pay higher taxes to fund government-run health care. The Times poll said 57% were willing to pay more tax; 37% were not willing to do so. But what the Times did not tell its readers was that 48% of those polled voted for Barack Obama. Just 25% supported John McCain. So of course the poll results would skew left.

Now we have another media deceit. In the most recent Newsweek magazine, there is a nasty hatchet job on Sarah Palin by a guy named Rick Perlstein. The piece is presented as hard news, not an opinion column, and basically says that the governor is a moron who is supported by dimwitted conservatives at odds with smart Republicans. Perlstein also submits that the dumb GOP folks are led by me and other Fox News people.

Anyone reading the story would think that a Newsweek correspondent put it together. I mean, the magazine has a staff of trained journalists to do its reporting and analysis. But Rick Perlstein is not a Newsweek correspondent, and is identified only as an author at the end of the piece. Very strange.

It gets even more strange.

Turns out that Rick Perlstein is a far-left zealot who blogs for a liberal site called "Campaign for America's Future." Perlstein lists one of his "interests" as "conservative failure." In 2007, Perlstein wrote, "I've just become a proud Fox [News] attacker. Now, you can too. It's not a boycott. It's simply calling advertisers and informing them what Fox says. Fox can't survive that."

So, Newsweek magazine hires a far-left loon to do a hit piece on Sarah Palin, conservatives, and Fox News, and does not inform its readers about the loon's dedicated point-of-view. Newsweek editor Jon Meacham basically tried to disguise an ideological attack as news coverage. Awful.

Newsweek magazine is in dire financial trouble and is seeking to survive by cultivating a liberal, urban audience. There is nothing wrong with that, as long as the editors are up-front about it. But this sneaky media stuff is harming America, and it must be unmasked.

With Barack Obama in the White House, the country is facing profound change. America is already on the verge of bankruptcy and federal intrusion into private business, health care, and the environment is unprecedented. The far left is trying to create a huge federal apparatus that will promote income redistribution and "social justice." Also, the left sees a major opportunity to knock out Judeo-Christian traditions, replacing them with a secular philosophy.

In order to accomplish this, the left-wing media is marginalizing people like Sarah Palin who oppose the strategy. Under the guise of hard news reporting, the media is pushing rank propaganda on the citizenry. Dr. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, successfully developed this tactic in the 1930's.

Americans need to wake up and smell the corruption. If crazy ideologues have infiltrated the news business, we need to know about it. And now you do.