Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Some Flawed Poll Conclusions, As Presented By The MSM

My friend Super Frenchie has a post that contrasts the French people's willingness to protest against the American people's lack of willingness. You can read it here.

Now, I am not trying to front Frenchie out, in any way, shape, or form. But in my opinion, he, like many others, has come to assume that certain polls indicate certain things, because the MSM presents them in a false light. And if not properly scrutinized, they presume they will be given credibility and you will fall for their skewed results, hook, line, and sinker..

Let's look at the first part of his post. It refers to a poll that asked the question:
". . . Do you approve or disapprove of the way Bush is handling the situation in Iraq?"

From that one question that we see so often plugged as an indicator by the MSM of support for/against the war, we get an assumption that those that disapprove of the way the war is being handled, are actually against the war. It does not indicate that, as it does not take into account that many that disapprove may be for more aggressive tactics, instead of the politically correct campaign that is now going on right now. I am one of those people that disapprove, but am not ready to oppose it just yet.

If the Bush Administration continues to allow public opinion to dictate the strategies, then I might become inclined to oppose it. And if at some point, when I feel that we are making no progress (because of this politically correctness philosophy that Bush seems to feel the need to follow is not working anymore), then I might become inclined to oppose it. But I am not at that point, yet. So, to lump me in with the anti-war crowd, is a faulty attempt to manipulate data, for the specific purpose of steering public opinion in their direction.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK, but here are more precise questions:

“In view of the developments since we first sent our troops to Iraq, do you think the United States made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq, or not?”

Yes, a mistake: 55%
No, not a mistake: 42%

“Do you favor or oppose the U.S. war with Iraq?”

Favor: 40%
Oppose: 56%

So it may not be quite two thirds, but it’s getting fairly close. Certainly a strong majority.

And regardless, even if the numbers were 40%, the question still stands: why aren’t those 40% demonstrating more?

When it all started, there weren’t 2/3 of Frenchies opposed to the CPE. They still went into the street.

Not that I agree with them on the CPE. I'm more interested in this post in contrasting the 2 "protest cultures."

LA Sunset said...

I addressed this at your site, comment #63.

Here it is.