FOX News Twists Its Own Polling Data To Advocate War Against Iran [View All]

[Mark E. Smith]

News Hounds 1/28/06

In a really frightening Hannity & Comes last night, FOX News pundits twisted the results of the network's own poll to make it look like the public wants to go to war against Iran. Five war-mongers, including faux liberal Bob Beckel, spoke enthusiastically about military action. No opposing voices were present. While they were at it, at least one person thought we should go after the Palestinians, too. Whatever happened to the notion that the overthrow of Saddam would bring peace and stability to the region? Nobody mentioned it. Nor did anyone say a word about enlisting either themselves or any family member in either of these supposedly necessary wars.

Much of the discussion was based on a FOX News poll out the same day. 13 of the poll's 41 questions were about Iran. No other topic in the poll had so many questions. One of the questions asked was "If diplomacy fails (author's emphasis), which of the following U.S. military options would you support to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons?" Out of several choices, 59% said, "using whatever military force is necessary." On Hannity & Colmes, everybody overlooked the poll's pre-condition of diplomacy failing, and talked about the public's enthusiasm for war with Iran.

(Later...)

Beckel asked Coulter what made the Iran issue so "dramatic and quickly developing in the United States?" Note: Beckel ignored the fact that the poll itself made Iran a focus but even more importantly, in his zeal to buddy up to the conservatives he overlooked Question 14 of the poll: What topic are you most interested in hearing the president talk about during his (State of the Union) speech? The top three answers were Iraq, Economy/Jobs, Terrorism/Security. Iran was 12th on the list.

http://www.newshounds.us/2006/01/28/fox_news_twists_its_own_polling_data_to_advocate_war_against_iran.php

FOX News poll @ http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/poll_012606.pdf

Two things:

1) It is my feeling that the election results in Iraq make it imperative (in the minds of the Bushies) to launch a war against Iran. In their viewpoint to pull our troops out of Iraq without first neutralizing Iran is tantamount to surrendering Iraq to Tehran. We're probably going to hear a whole lot from Fudgie Bush about Iran Tuesday night.

2) This FOX News poll shows Bush's approval at 41%.