Israel Slams Poll Citing 'Israeli Peace Threat'
This story raises a couple of issues. The first is the interesting spin tactic of going after the messenger while ignoring the message. The second is the question raised about the validity of a poll - simply put, is the way a question is asked being governed by politics.
Another way to look at this is:
Is pollign such a science that we can predict the answer based on how the question is asked?
This is hardly a new issue. Gore Vidal raises this same topic in a discussion of polling in the 1940 presidential campaign. In Vidal's novel, "the Golden Age," Vidal maintains that the pollsters were under the control of the politicians and thus shaped public opinion while pretending to report it objectively.
Israel seems to be claiming much the same thing here. Who do you trust?
Posted by Greg Stone at November 3, 2003 07:58 PM | TrackBackIn an article like this, why is the actual wording of the question not printed? After all, isn't that the main point of contention?
The Israeli statement about the disparity in news coverage may be quite valid.
Posted by: Richard Meyer at November 5, 2003 03:17 PM