Troops don't approve of Bush handling of war; majority believe war was wrong

[ProSense]

January 2, 2007
Guest: Steve Benen

IF A MILITARY TIMES POLL FALLS IN A FOREST.... Following up on an item from the weekend, the Military Times newspapers published a massive new poll after questioning 6,000 randomly selected active-duty members of the Armed Forces. The results ran counter to much of the conventional wisdom -- barely one in three service members approve of the way the president is handling the war; a majority believe it was wrong to go into Iraq in the first place; and a plurality reject the notion of sending additional troops into the war.

For reasons that are unclear, the media seems to have missed the poll entirely.

Greg Sargent noted on Saturday the dearth of news coverage of this story, and I followed up this morning by doing a Nexis search to see just how many outlets reported on the story. Given the results of the poll and the importance of the troops' opinions, I was surprised at just how little coverage the Military Times survey received.

In terms of newspapers, the San Jose Mercury News and the Seattle Times were the only U.S. papers to run stories of their own. Reuters and UPI mentioned the poll in wire stories, which were not widely picked up. That's it. That's all the print coverage the poll received.

Broadcast outlets were a bit better, with CNN and ABC mentioning the poll on the air, but that's still not exactly widespread coverage.

It's common for outlets to downplay poll results from rival news sources; papers and networks don't want to give free publicity to competing news organizations. I get that. But the Military Times newspapers aren't rivals to the major dailies. So why not mention a poll that highlights the fact that many troops disapprove of Bush, don't support an escalation, don't see Iraq as part of the war on terror, and don't believe that success in Iraq is likely?

It sounds kind of newsworthy.

[LynnTheDem]

1. Please post this in GD, too?

More DUers seem to read GD and imo this is an important poll!

[ProSense]

3. Thanks for the suggestion. n/t

[rodeodance]

2. "the media seems to have missed the poll entirely."

For reasons that are unclear, the media seems to have missed the poll entirely.

[Tactical Progressive]

11. You can bet they wouldn't miss it if the troops supported Bush

And you could make an equally sure bet they'd be trumpeting such a poll up one side and down the other if the troops weren't supporting a Dem Commander in Chief.

[Mikey929]

4. Pat Buchanan

Saw an article by Buchanan I agreed with today! He reminded the government that we do not need to be the world's policeman and we don't need to invade others to spread democracy. A little bit of reason from someone I usually disagree with.

[beachmom]

5. Definitely newsworthy. K & R.

[marmar]

6. The walls are caving in on BushCo - quickly!

:yoiks:

[Auntie Bush]

7. The wall will cave in and cover him over...but the little weasel like

snake in the grass will wiggle out and rise again. Then we can smack him down again! :woohoo:

[Conscious Confucius]

8. Oh, but they all hate John Kerry, right?

I wish the news media would report the news, instead of sidling up to whatever opinion is popular at the time.

[Ian_rd]

9. It's so sad when our own troops don't support the troops ...

... and have joined the liberal agenda to aid and comfort our enemies by allowing their faith in Him, The Decider, to waiver in the face of Islamohillaryliberalfascism.

[Tactical Progressive]

10. LOL!

That's the sad logic of the Republicanistic worldview that the major media has bought into, lock, stock and barrel.

I can't wait for Paula Zahn to sternly question some GI's on why they don't support the troops. What do you say, to people who say, that you're not being very patriotic?

[Phredicles]

17. Post of the day - I wish I could give a separate recommendation

just for that!

This is enormous news, so of COURSE the mainstream media won't cover it, y'know? On a personal level, it's especially heartening, since on another site I just recently had a bad run-in with a couple of military people (or so they claimed) who are still drinking the Decider-Aid. I do wish news like this were more widespread, so it could be clear just to what extent these people are speaking only for themselves.

[Ian_rd]

20. Frankly, I no longer believe them.

I exchange comments with Bushies a lot, and after just about every single one of them over the past three years claims to be a combat veteran, many of which also claim that they've been to Iraq and supposedly seen our hap-happy freedom-spreading goodness first hand, I pretty much tell them that I don't believe them if they say they are veterans. I hate to jump to immediate conclusions like that, but if every bonehead Bush-lover I've spoken with is a decorated vet, I'm Cindy Lauper's freakin' food-taster.

"Decider-Aid?" That rules! Holy crap, that's begging for a graphic design.

[4nic8em]

12. Maybe Tony Snowjob

could spin this into "the troops don't support the troops" or "their either against us or their against us". America awakens...

[maxsolomon]

13. but the soldiers on Hannity said the opposite!

"name one war that was ever won without a military" sayeth the wise troop.

the mind blows.

[mconvente]

14. Can you say Ministry of Truth...

If this isn't COMPLETE proof of our "free media" being a propagandist operation, then I don't know what else is...

[whistle]

15. That must be a real shock to Bush/Cheney and the White House

...advisors. Impeach now!

[Cha]

16. Our so called "media" misses a lot

of things because they're fascists POSs.

[cui bono]

18. Scarborough is leading with this story! n/t

[mnhtnbb]

19. We need to be writing our local papers and referencing this and asking it be published

[HowHasItComeToThis]

21. THE MEAN SCREAM MEDIA ARE AN ENEMY OF DEOCRACY

:bounce: SHAKE THEM UP, THEY ARE SELLING DEAD BODIES.

[Divine Discontent]

22. military poll? what poll???

they are in such denial, it's like a bunch of closeted gays in the baptist church.... they're never going to listen to us, they're covering their ears like my millionaire rightwinger aunt going, "LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA!"



www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable <<-- antibush prodem stickers/shirts

[curiousdemo]

23. This low life is a Chicken hawk, Draft dodger, Loser, Sulfur

smelling, Lier, War Criminal, Undecider, Dyslexia, Psycho IV, 3rd Generation Nazi appeaser, Emotional disturb John Wayne wannabe. This all came from my neighbor Johnnie, who left for his 2nd tour in Iraq in November. This what a Major in the Army think of this Asshole of President.

[orleans]

24. WHY DO THE TROOPS HATE AMERICA???

i saw the daily show rerun tonight (tues) w/bill kristol--mr. pnac--and HE said the troops want more troops sent to iraq. didn't i hear that the troops DON'T want more troops sent there? i think i did.

[progressoid]

25. Damn Liberal Media

[karynnj]

26. That is a great summary of the lack of coverage

given to this very significant story. This indicates that even as the war has lost favor - the media is doing a very bad job reporting that. This and some comments from several other sources are here:
http://blog.johnkerry.com/

It is compiled on John Kerry's blog - and has several links - so rather than click on each link to get them (because copying the text and links seems to never work), the link is to there.

[jabeguy]

27. CIA owns the media, so its obvious, is it not?

Check it out for yourselves:
http://www.disclosureproject.org

Scroll down to "• MEDIA CONTROL DOCUMENT - CIA Memorandum Subject: Task Force Report on Greater CIA Openness - dated December 1991 (Page 10 is missing) - June 2004 "

To me, its no surprise this happens to such news. Yes, we need to get out the word. Please spread this truth as well. Good work everyone. Thank you.

[wordpix]

28. I support our troops! If 2/3 say no more troops, that's good enough for me

[NobleCynic]

29. This from the Military Times

Yow. At least it got some media play.