50% Belief in WMD Poll: A Critical Look at Americans' Lastest Idiocy

[Hissyspit]

A very good short critical analysis from an AP Special Correspondent:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_BELIEVING_WMD?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

Half of U.S. Still Believes Iraq Had WMD

By CHARLES J. HANLEY
AP Special Correspondent

- snip -

"I'm flabbergasted," said Michael Massing, a media critic whose writings dissected the largely unquestioning U.S. news reporting on the Bush administration's shaky WMD claims in 2002-03. "This finding just has to cause despair among those of us who hope for an informed public able to draw reasonable conclusions based on evidence," Massing said.

Timing may explain some of the poll result. Two weeks before the survey, two Republican lawmakers, Pennsylvania's Sen. Rick Santorum and Michigan's Rep. Peter Hoekstra, released an intelligence report in Washington saying 500 chemical munitions had been collected in Iraq since the 2003 invasion.

- snip -

As recently as May 27, Bush told West Point graduates, "When the United Nations Security Council gave him one final chance to disclose and disarm, or face serious consequences, he refused to take that final opportunity."

"Which isn't true," observed Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a scholar of presidential rhetoric at the University of Pennsylvania. But "it doesn't surprise me when presidents reconstruct reality to make their policies defensible." This president may even have convinced himself it's true, she said.

- snip -

The creative "morphing" goes on: As Israeli troops and Hezbollah guerrillas battled in Lebanon on July 21, a Fox News segment suggested, with no evidence, yet another destination for the supposed doomsday arms. "ARE SADDAM HUSSEIN'S WMDS NOW IN HEZBOLLAH'S HANDS?" asked the headline, lingering for long minutes on TV screens in a million American homes.

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[Selatius]

1. Joseph Goebbels would be so proud of what the corporatists have done.

The corporate news media is the best in the business as far as lacing lies into the minds of the public.

[burf]

2. The numbers are not surprising.

Look at the coverage Faux News had on the story and the claims of RW talk radio. I contrast how much airtime has the Iraq Survey Group testimony of Richard Kay had?

How many citizens still think that Saddam was involved in 9/11? Even though Bush himself has said he is not.

[benddem]

3. yesterday

a caller to "Ring of Fire" was totally amazing. He believed the WMD story cause Colin Powell said they had them. Mike couldn't argue him down. Finally he just told him to stop watching Faux news.

[marmar]

4. Dumb as a box of rocks...

:dunce: :dunce: :dunce:

Willfully and militantly ignorant.

[SPKrazy]

5. Interesting That They Tie It To Santorum and Hoekstra's Feaux

reporting propaganda saying that 500 banned munitions had been found

this happening right before the poll was taken

if 50% watch Feaux Snooze, or listen to RW talk radio, they may have been influenced by the propagandists to think that in fact there were WMD's found

the 500 munitions were all 15 or more years old, found in ones and twos for the most parts, from old battlefields for the most part.

at any rate, they were not large stockpiles of WMD that were claimed

[bananarepublican]

7. Looking on the bright side...

Even with the reach and supposed pull of the MSM, at least 50% still question what the lying scum of "officialdom" are telling them.

In other words, 50% of the American People are genius's!!! Geobbels would be pissed off by these numbers. And with confidence I state my belief that Rove has been livid for quite a while!!!

[Hissyspit]

9. Well, that is an optimistic take on it.

And I appreciate it. Sometimes it all just gets so depressing.

[Poiuyt]

6. This is directly the fault of the US media

OK, the blame has to go to Bush and his people for the lies and innuendos also. But the US media has accepted whatever the Administration has said without question instead of revealing the truth to the American public. They could have easily corrected the problem of the misinformed public.

And Fox, of course, should not be considered part of the MSM. They are nothing but the propaganda wing of the Republican party.

[LastDemocratInSC]

8. By definition, 50% of the population has below average intelligence