Gallup: Majority of Americans Feel Iraq Media Coverage is 'Inaccurate' -- and Mainly Too Negative

[sabra]

http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003527871

Gallup: Majority of Americans Feel Iraq Media Coverage is 'Inaccurate' -- and Mainly Too Negative

NEW YORK A new Gallup poll released today reveals that most Americans -- some 56% -- believe that the news media's coverage of the war in Iraq is generally "inaccurate."

...

That means that overall, about one-third of Americans believe that the news media present too negative a picture of what is happening in Iraq; one out of five believe that the news media present too positive a picture, and the rest say that news media coverage is about right or have no opinion.

Looking at the partisan divide, Gallup explains: "Two-thirds of Republicans believe that the news media's coverage of Iraq is both inaccurate and makes the situation there appear worse. Only one-quarter say that news media coverage is accurate.

"On the other hand, a majority of Democrats (55%) say that news media coverage of the situation there is accurate, with most of the rest saying that it is inaccurate and biased toward making the situation there appear better than it really is. Independents' views on the issue are between the two extremes of Republicans and Democrats."

[Ian David]

1. Then Fox "News" should commit their "journalists" to spend more time in Iraq...

going off the beaten path, roaming far and wide through out the country, in search of "the good news."

Geraldo should rent an apartment in Fallujah for a month, perhaps?

[closeupready]

11. That was my first thought, too.

Journalism is dangerous, especially during a war. Kind of hard to investigate good news in such an environment.

[HarveyBrooks]

26. I can't understand

why rush, hannity, o'liely etc. don't just head on over for a month or 2 and show us how great things are going instead of bitching about biased media coverage. They ARE the media.
Of course, they're also sniveling cowards.

[hedda_foil]

2. It's an odd and mainly inaccurate headline for E&P

[MidwestTransplant]

6. True. 33% does not a majority make.

As to too negative of reporting.

[grytpype]

8. 33% think the reporting is too negative, the same 33% who still support Bush and the war.

I agree, this headline is very misleading. It says most people think the reporting is too negative, which is totally not true.

[MidwestTransplant]

9. If those 33% went wandering Iraq to see for themselves,

there would be 33% less people around.

[rebel with a cause]

17. If the republicans are put into fractions

why are the democrats not done the same. Shouldn't it read more like: A little over half of the democrats feel the reporting is accurate, while the remaining feel it is not and prone to be skrewed toward the positive side.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Only a party of tyrants could claim there is a good side to glorify

in this dirty, deceitful, vicious attack on a country and population who were absolutely no threat to us whatsoever.

[Mandate My Ass]

5. Agreed. And the tyrants themselves are the ones spreading that lie

which the "liberal" media posts as if their job is to parrot the tyrants' lies and not challenge any of them.

[otohara]

4. Dems Are Smarter

dems are better looking, dems are funnier, etc..etc.., dems get it!

[Viva_La_Revolution]

20. Dems are sexier too

can't forget that one. :)

[Demit]

7. It's ridiculous that any citizen would even feel qualified to say.

Unless a person has an intimate first-person view of what is going on anywhere, or in anything, how is it possible to say whether something is accurate or not? These are ridiculous questions to be asked in the first place, and ridiculous that the answers are presented with any gravity or authority or even with a straight face. I swear, we are really living in the fucking Twilight Zone.

[wisteria]

10. This poll reinforces the idea that polls are not always to be believed.

Gallop obviously just polled Hannity and Fox News listeners. They have been harping on the idea that "good things" don't get reported, only the bad and the reason is the media is soooooooo Liberal.

[acmavm]

12. Gallup is a repuke slanted organization that can't be trusted to

report what people had for breakfast on New Years Day.

[Bob3]

13. man did they slice and dice the results to get this headline

we have 33% who think the press is too negative about Iraq.
We have 25% who think the press is being too happy happy joy joy look at the painted school houses. or we do have a majority of people (55%) who think the press isn't telling the whole story but only someone with an agenda would twist the numbers to match a right wing talking point.
what the real story is 33% of the nation is lost to rational thought.

[melody]

14. A naked attempt to spin a bad poll for Bush

Same old, same old.

There's no "majority" in those numbers, except in the sense that everyone else disagrees more than agrees and only a vaguely
larger percentage drinks the Koolaid.

[Norquist Nemesis]

15. More dog and pony statistics

that add up to a heap of bullshit.

[sinkingfeeling]

16. I have a suggestion for those Repubs who think they're getting an inaccurate

picture of Iraq: go see for yourselves.

[rebel with a cause]

18. the sooner the better!

:evilgrin:

[brentspeak]

19. Total B.S. The American people don't want their news to be spun.

They don't want information concerning the Iraq War to be sugar-coated. I've met very few people anywhere who think the war coverage has been "too negative".

[depakid]

21. Not in the least by the likes of Gallup

which is an outfit that is well known to manipulate their polls to reflect a certain agenda.

Read: no credibility.

[high density]

22. How can somebody even truthfully answer that if they haven't been to Iraq?

These polls on the media by the media are a massive waste of time and effort.

[sendero]

29. There are ..

... other sources of information, one doesn't have to rely on the American media machine to find out what is going on.

[aaronbees]

23. Inacurrate? Perhaps....

I generally think the reporting is too positive ... or not thorough enough to give a real picture of the vast sea of desperation and madness we've helped create in the Middle East.

As far as headlines go, pretty confusing ... I notice the "and Mainly Too Negative" part is not there now ... did they edit it? In either case, as the stats show it's not a majority that think it's "too negative." Sixty-one percent of 56 percent does not a majority make. I expect better from Editor & Publisher; they usually do good work.

[LynnTheDem]

24. ISG report; "significant UNDERreporting of the VIOLENCE in Iraq"

But 1/3 of Americans are as ignorant as dirt.

How the fuck did so many supposedly "first world" people become so fucking dumb?

[Cha]

25. Schizen..WAR IS NEGATIVE!

Negative would be showing the thousands of coffins and the wounded and maimed coming back OR would that be Reality?

What happened to the embedded reporters? Got too dangerous?

[CJCRANE]

27. "and Mainly Too Negative" is not in the headline of the linked article nt

[sendero]

28. Well they are half right..

... it IS inaccurate, just not in the direction they think.

[Robb]

30. I had a physics prof who used to poll the students

...when a bunch of us got more than one answer to a question. You know, a question where there was indeed a right answer. So he'd have us vote. Often the majority was wrong.

It was his little point about polls. Stuck with me that it's not always the way to arrive at truth -- despite what one might see on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" ;)