In a couple of Heinlein's stories, he posits a technology based on "semantic loading". In effect, by choosing words with care, you can slant the story you present at a level below the reader's conscious threshold. In Methuselah's Children, it's been quantified, and news articles are not allowed to use words with a semantic loading greater than 2.0.
I'm not sure if anyone will ever be able to quantify examples like this, though:
I should probably take more time to point out how important the names and labels we choose are. Names are compressed arguments, they're ways of saying that the emotional associations we tie to item X should also be tied to person or object Y. And that's why I find this headline so entertaining: "Judge Delays Trial of Student Accused of Plot to Kill Bush" Get it? He's not the "suspect." He's not an "accused member of al Queda." No, no. He's a "student who's been accused." And if you can't tell what the Times thinks of the government's case from that headline, well, you're just not keeping score.
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