False justification (media polls & public opinion)

The Washington Times ^ | June 27, 2006 | Steven E. Schier

[neverdem]

    The national media is a power-hungry institution. It maintains its power to determine what is important in American politics and government by making dupes of the American public. The "duping" occurs though media opinion polling.

    To preserve their agenda power, the mainstream media have an ace in the hole: opinion polls. By asking the right questions of the public, the media can validate the legitimacy of their agenda focus by claiming the public has a similar view.

    What is the mainstream media's favored agenda focus? They have long devoted disproportionate interest to political conflict, scandal, horse races and bad news. Media polls focus disproportionately on these topics.

    The poll questions also reflect the media's favored framing of the news.

    So when the public responses usually reliably echo the media frames, the media claim public support for its interpretations.

     Here's how it works. The Associated Press and national papers put a "label" on recent events, for example, claiming in spring 2006 that Iraq was heading toward civil war. Within weeks, the question is put to the public and majorities indicate a belief that civil war is beginning in Iraq. Label proved, regardless of the more complex facts on the ground there.

    A classic example of leading many citizens by the nose was a Washington Post overnight poll in 2003 with the first allegations of a possible White House scandal involving the leaking of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. The overnight poll found that only 68 percent of the public had heard of the matter but that fully 81 percent thought it was serious now that the pollsters had framed the matter for them. Moreover, less than 10 percent had no opinion about a matter that a third of respondents had not heard of before...

[edzo4]

The overnight poll found that only 68 percent of the public had heard of the matter but that fully 81 percent thought it was serious now that the pollsters had framed the matter for them.




liberal losers

[adorno]

The overnight poll found that only 68 percent of the public had heard of the matter but that fully 81 percent thought it was serious now that the pollsters had framed the matter for them.

Which is why I've always felt that each poll, whenever it comes out, should in itself be treated as a news story to be analyzed, dissected, and re-presented to the public as what it is and what the real goals and agenda of the pollster really were.