Glenn Greenwald: Polling hysteria and the NSA program (on the WaPo poll)

Somehow, The Washington Post -- on the very same day most people learned about the new NSA data-collection program -- managed to conduct a poll which purports to show that "63 percent of Americans said they found the NSA program to be an acceptable way to investigate terrorism." The reaction is painfully predictable. Bush followers are celebrating with glee, as though the issue is resolved in their favor and they won, while some Democrats are quivering with caution, urging that this issue be kept at arm's length lest they take a position that isn't instantaneously and overwhelmingly popular.

I didn't even read about this story until yesterday morning and it took awhile to process the various issues and implications. I'm still doing that. I have a hard time believing that less than 24 hours after this program was first revealed by USA Today, most Americans had informed themselves about what this program is, why it is a departure from past practices, and what are its potential dangers and excesses -- let alone had an opportunity to hear from those who are opposed to the program explain why they are opposed to it.

The whole point of having political leaders and pundits is to articulate a point of view and provide support for that view in order to persuade Americans of its rightness. That process changes public opinion on every issue, all of the time, often dramatically. None of that has occurred here. Let's have a few days of debate over whether Americans actually want the Government to maintain a permanent data base of every call they make and receive -- to their girlfriends and boyfriends, their doctors and lawyers, their psychiatrists and drug counselors. And let's have a debate about whether the law prohibits this program. And then let's see where public opinion is.

When the NSA eavesdropping scandal was first disclosed, Rasmussen Reports quickly issued a blatantly flawed poll purporting to show that "Sixty-four percent (64%) of Americans believe the National Security Agency (NSA) should be allowed to intercept telephone conversations between terrorism suspects in other countries and people living in the United States. " The question mentioned nothing about warrants. It mentioned nothing about FISA. And it specified that the Government would be eavesdropping only on conversations "between terrorism suspects."

more...

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/05/polling-hysteria-and-nsa-program.html

found out about the spying.

How did that work?

Wait a day and take a similar poll and I bet the results will be far different, one everyone figures out they have been hoodwinked by the regime again.

let the WP write a story that provides cover for bushco.

it is so obviously bullshit it is ridiculous.

At the very bottom of the page called "Natinal Security Agency"
(No, I didn't misspell -- that's the way it's written)

The telephone survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted by Rasmussen Reports December 26-27, 2005. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 4.5 percentage points at the midpoint with a 95% level of confidence (see Methodology).

December 26-27, 2005???!!!

LOL Sorry, but if true that DESERVES 3 question marks and 3 exclamation points! They have a seance maybe? Hell, I want a psychic reading from Rasmussen!

Don't know whether to :rofl: or :cry:


Edit:
Completely missed dateline at the beginning of the article!

National Security Agency

December 28, 2005--Sixty-four percent (64%) of Americans believe the National Security Agency (NSA) should be allowed to intercept telephone conversations between terrorism suspects in other countries and people living in the United States. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that just 23% disagree.

*snip*

So they had this ready and waiting...

But there's a big change once it hits home that ten of millions of American citizens were spied on, no?

n/t

I don't know how many times it needs to be shown that they routinely craft questions designed to skew the results in favor of BushCo.

The other obvious component to the "Big Lie" machine being run out of Rove's office concerns step two in the playbook. WaPo/ABC put out a clearly bogus poll result immediately after the USA Today story and within minutes every right wing radio operative and outlet broadcasts the results every quarter hour for the next few days. It is already happening. Just this morning I heard the WaPo/ABC poll being mentioned on three different radio stations. It is all BS and it is obvious that these polling groups are working hand in glove with BushCo and the rest of the BushCo media allies.

You'll note that they craft the question without making clear that the NSA is bypassing FISA and conducting WARRANTLESS searches. I also think that Greenwald's article clearly explains why you should be highly critical of the WaPo/ABC poll recently released.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/2005/NSA.htm