For the record, part of me actually wanted this latest Pew poll, which claims that 56% of Americans "say the National Security Agency’s (NSA) program tracking the telephone records of millions of Americans is an acceptable way for the government to investigate terrorism" to be accurate. I thought it might be used to bolster the case for the widespread hypocrisy I've observed among many liberals who now support actions and policies by this administration that they clearly opposed by the previous one.
This hypocrisy element is a significant development in my view. And needs to be explored more. But when I looked a little closer at the Pew Poll, I didn't find evidence of hypocrisy at all.
What I found was a blatant, and almost certainly deliberate effort to deceive readers about public opinion on the issue of the NSA's mass surveillance of innocent American citizens.
Fortunately, I'm not the only one who noticed. Left I, a lefty blog, caught it too - which saves me the trouble of having to type it up:
The Pew poll is being reported by news organizations, and by Pew, in a very misleading manner. Here's Pew's headline, and the way it's being reported: "Majority Views NSA Phone Tracking as Acceptable Anti-terror Tactic"But the actual poll reads: "NSA getting secret court orders to track millions of Americans to investigate terrorism is acceptable/not acceptable/don't know"
56% of people polled answered acceptable to that question, which has one huge lie and one huge bias. The lie is that NSA is getting secret court orders to track millions of Americans; they are doing no such thing. They are gathering phone records on every Verizon customer (and, presumably, other phone companies as well, although that isn't on the record yet). From what we know (which may itself be a lie), a court order is required only to obtain the content of those calls, not to "track" them (i.e., the metadata). And, additionally, there is the huge bias in that question of the ending phrase "to investigate terrorism."
A simpler question: "Is it acceptable for the NSA to collect data on every single call you make - to whom it was made, where you were when you made it, and how long you spoke," was not asked.
Now, in other cases, I might give someone the benefit of the doubt that they're just really stupid. But this is Pew. No one there is stupid at all. So I have to assume that they inserted this bizarre reference to a "secret court order" to tilt the results. Maybe I'm mistaken. Maybe the authors of that poll just really don't have enough intelligence to understand the actual evidence as revealed by the Guardian.Regardless, intentional or not, the reporting on this poll is complete fucking propaganda.
PROPAGANDA TECHNIQUESBandwagon:
Bandwagon is one of the most common techniques in both wartime and peacetime and plays an important part in modern advertising. Bandwagon is also one of the seven main propaganda techniques identified by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis in 1938. Bandwagon is an appeal to the subject to follow the crowd, to join in because others are doing so as well. Bandwagon propaganda is, essentially, trying to convince the subject that one side is the winning side, because more people have joined it.
I've never had reason to question Pew's polling before. Now I will never trust them again. Live and learn.