"Rhetoric In The Name Of Anti-rhetoric": An Anatomy Of The "Journalistic Objectiveness" Claimed By The U.S. Media

American mainstream journalism has been presumed by many people to be clear of the practice of public opinion manipulation. However, this article cites evidence to prove that this presumption is not true and argues that American journalistic discourses skillfully massage and shape public opinions through the application of rhetorical strategies. American mainstream media's discursive practices are on-going rhetorical operations under the guise of an uncompromising stance against rhetoric.By analyzing the features of the American and the Chinese mainstream media's opinion making efforts, this article also puts forward a point that the success of the American official propagandizing operations is due to their application of "propaganda in the name of anti-propaganda" and the failure of the Chinese side is because of their "conceptual lag" in the understanding and applying of Western rhetoric.