I’m pretty sure I recall seeing Drudge link to this the other day. Gun killings were down 39% between 1993 and 2011, and non-fatal gun crimes were down 69%. Yet only 12% of the public realized this, with 56% saying gun crimes were up.

I’m sure there are plenty of examples of this, but I recall in particular the Quayle-Gore vice presidential debate of 1992. Immediately following the debate, polls were evenly split on the winner. After a week of the relentless message that Gore had won, two-thirds of Americans agreed — even though nothing had changed about the debate in the interim.