Same poll, same figures, but here are the differing headlines (with correlative "spin" on their accompanying stories) announcing the results of an Oxford International poll (which all stories pronounce as definitive and thorough):
79% of Iraqis do not trust US-led coalition--Middle East Online.
Iraqis welcome Saddam's fall--BBC News
Iraqis Do Not Trust US-Led Forces--Reuters UK
Poll: Most Iraqis distrustul of US-Led Coalition--China Daily
Iraqi Public Opinion Poll Finds Overwhelming Support for Democratic Future--Michael Drudge, VOA (Voice of America) News.
Okay, so there's nothing new about "spin." But gosh-all-rootie, when you read these articles, and the score of others that Google News reveals when you insert "Oxford International Poll" in its search engine, you'd think the stories, which reported, merely, a list of numbers next to a list of questions, were of utterly different events.
In this day of quick news, quick everything, we've handed over to ministerial monkeys, paid by huge vested interests, the creation of reality. Don't get me started on this subject, but for God's sake, my buddies, from now on, do at least this: Read the poll, not the report about the poll. Not too much to ask of an informed citizen, right?
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