With its chosen presidential candidate having soundly lost one week ago, we may have expected a bit of chastening on the part of the leftward mainstream media.

Not quite so, at least not for the moment. Fox News' website headlines for the current allied offensive in Fallujah reads the following way:

The theme is consistent with reports, which Wretchard drew together into a cogent statement last night, that the Iranian-Syrian-Ba'athist-terrorist combine was not prepared for the ferocity and precision of this assault; nor could they possibly ever have been. MSNBC, however, seems to be reporting from a different — if familiar — perspective:

Granted, as Chester points out this morning, light resistance could be the sign of weakness or deception on the part of the enemy. Either way, that discovery hasn't yet been made; moreover, the story observing "unexpectedly light resistance" is from the Associated Press, which means MSNBC could easily have included it in their coverage.

There's a rule of thumb here. When confronted with a friend who while unaffiliated politically is a registered voter, who may have appeared a bit glum about Republicans, the president, the economy, the war on terror or the state of the world in general, get to the heart of things: ask him where he gets his news.

'FIERCE FIGHTING' AND 'LIGHTER THAN EXPECTED': Not to diminish the challenges and mortal dangers the Allies face, the reports of "fierce fighting" — using precisely that phrase — apparently come solely from accounts from "witnesses" within the city, as evidenced by three separate reports from the New York Times, Australian news, and United Press International (UPI's story including a typical note of terrorist propagandizing of "heavy casualties" when those reported by Central Command are extremely light). That could mean sources are the few noncombatants who are believed to have remained in Fallujah because they are supportive of, related to, or in fear of and therefore verbally concurrent with, the terrorists.

The disparity between reports directly from our soldiers and embeds, and unverifiably independent accounts from people walking about in a combat zone fits well with the Allies' decision to reclaim Fallujah's main hospital first, the Pentagon eager to prevent terrorists from "forcing the doctors there to release propaganda and false information." The enemy may be woefully outmatched but can claim a strong ability to twist perception. It seems ever clearer that the only way for authoritarians to win is to convince the West, through doubt, to defeat itself.

THE REASON FOR THIS TOPIC: Al Jazeera is spreading disinformation for the benefit of our enemies. Stay sharp.