Reporter Frank Davies Responds

[snarkyman]

I heard back from reporter Frank Davies, the author of the story referenced below. The original poll was conducted for Knight Ridder in January by Princeton Survey Research Associates. There are no direct links to the quoted study on their website, though. I found a story on Salon.com talking about this study.

"At the end of the first week of January, the Princeton Survey Research Associates polled more than 1,200 Americans on behalf of the Knight Ridder newspaper chain. They asked a very simple question: "To the best of your knowledge, how many of the September 11 hijackers were Iraqi citizens?"

"The Knight Ridder survey appears to reveal a quite different reality. Of those surveyed, only 17 percent knew the correct answer: that none of the hijackers were Iraqi. Forty-four percent of Americans believe that most or some of the hijackers were Iraqi; another 6 percent believe that one of the hijackers was a citizen of that most notorious node in the axis of evil. That leaves 33 percent who did not know enough to offer an answer."

My point is this: The American public has been willfully misled by the Bush Administration. I'm very frustrated at the fact that all this support for the war in Iraq comes from a lack of knowledge and false assumptions.

You want to know what the bitch of it is? If Herr Bush et al really invaded Iraq to remove a dictator for "humanitarian reasons", I probably would have supported the effort. But I don't trust Bush to be that altruistic; no conservative would be caught dead doing such a thing. The American public has been misled and even lied to. And nobody cares.

I guess it's true: In a Democracy, everyone gets what the majority deserves.

Comments

[bobdole.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't be so quick to blame the Bush administration for the staggering ignorance of the american public.

But I'm sure there are plenty of other things Bush & co. could be blamed for, though. :)

[eirehound.livejournal.com]

I'm with bobdole. Unless there is some evidence that the Bush Administration told the American people that the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqis, then I don't think there was willful deception. Did the Admin choose not to disabuse the public of a useful misperception? Undoubtedly.

What happened here, I think, was this:
1. 9/11 was a major terrorist act.
2. Ever since, we've been talking "War on Terrorism".
3. Iraq starts to loom large in the War on Terrorism.

Memory is quite malleable, which is why documentary evidence is so important in truly knowing anything and why eyewitness evidence is considered weak in courtrooms. As Elizabeth Loftus has found, we continually reconstruct memories in light of current situations. We're headed for war with Iraq as part of the War on Terrorism, so naturally many people don't stop to think about something that flashed by on their TV screens a year back and simply 'remember' that at least some of the 9/11 terrorists were Iraqis. Boom!

"How useful for leaders that the mass of men do not think." - A. Hitler.

The Bush admins note this, find it useful, and don't disabuse the public of the notion. Why should they? I mean, they're Republicans. Democrats know what factual honesty is (though they don't practice it vas much as we'd like), but for Repubicans factual honesty is like something out of Peter Pan: nice to believe in, but grown-up politicians live in the real world, not Never-Never-Land.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

I think part of it is the evil question they asked. Think about the Letterman and Leno skits where they ask people on the street "What state is Toronto in?" or whatever. Y'know, the "where do they bury the survivors" type question.

I would find a question like this more useful:

The 9/11 terrorists were from what countries?
1. Libya
2. Syria
3. Iraq
4. Iran
5. Afghanistan
6. Saudi Arabia (just in case anyone is paying attention)

I suspect you'll see a pretty even spread, with some smart people remembering something about Afghanistan and some others remembering that we're not at war with Libya any more, theoretically.

As for willful misleading - HELL YEAH! Keep speaking out about it!

TMH