[lbo-talk] lots of Americans believe WMDs have been found!

R rhisiart at charter.net
Wed May 28 17:10:41 PDT 2003


guess this kind of surrealism is what we get for living inside the largest, most intense, most powerful propaganda machine on the face of the earth. ignorance is very "in."

R

----- Original Message -----

From: Doug Henwood

To: lbo-talk

Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 3:19 PM

Subject: [lbo-talk] lots of Americans believe WMDs have been found!

[This stuff gets more surreal every day. Via Sam Smith's Progressive Review.]

<http://www.knowledgenetworks.com/ganp>

A PIPA-Knowledge Networks poll finds that 68% continue to approve of the

decision to go to war with Iraq. However, only 50% said that they were

somewhat (29%) or very (21%) certain that "when the US government presented

the evidence to justify going to war with Iraq, it was. . . not being

misleading." Another 5% said they were not very certain. . . Steven Kull,

director of PIPA comments, "Enthusiasm about the success of the war may be

offset by the failure to find evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction

or links to al' Qaeda."

Kull continues, "For some Americans, their desire to support the war may be

leading them to screen out information that weapons of mass destruction have

not been found." While 59% of those polled correctly said the US has not

found Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, 41% said they believed that the US

has found such weapons (34%) or were unsure (7%). While 69% correctly said

that Iraq had not used chemical or biological weapons in the war, 31% said

they believed Iraq had (22%) or were unsure (9%). Kull adds, "Given the

intensive news coverage and high levels of public attention to the topic,

this level of misinformation suggests that some Americans may be avoiding

having an experience of cognitive dissonance."

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