How do Americans feel about all those phone calls the NSA is stuffing into a database? Well, says an ABC-Washington Post poll, 63 percent strongly endorse the program as an effective way to combat terrorism. No, no, says a USA Today poll, Americans oppose it by a 51-43 percent margin. The poll results differ, the USA Today story suggested "because questions in the two polls were worded differently." Gee, do you think? Since USA Today "broke" the story, which in itself suggests that something wrong is being done, do you think there's the slightest possibility those who designed the USA Today poll were trying, however consciously or unconsciously, to get a negative reaction? Just wondering.
A couple of weeks ago, News-Sentinel columnist Kevin Leininger took off on the instant surveys blogs and even newspaper Web sites are getting into the habit of running. The headline on his column pretty well sums up his belief: "Straw polls amuse, but aren't news." Journalists, he said, whether professionals or amateur bloggers, "should not expect readers to sift fact from fiction."
In the old days, we fancied ourselves “gatekeepers”
