Sometimes Canadian business classes and intelligentsia surprise me. There is an ability to see the world drastically differently than the USA media "echo chamber" of the White House communications pipeline (a pipeline/octopus that should be flow charted and studied as part of high school education).
Every day I scan the Globe (Canada's national paper, pro-business) for certain stories, and usually put my little vote in on their "question of the day." If only to guess what the likely outcome would be.
Today, I was surprised. Question:
If the U.S. administration's 'road map' for
Middle East peace leads nowhere, which
group do you believe is most to blame?
[ ] Palestinians
[ ] Palestinian militants
[ ] Israelis
I figured there would be a similar vague opinion found in Asper's chain of Canadian media outlets (pro-Israel) and usually found everywhere in the US major media (with lots of dissenting voice, of course) and then echoed by the public. I expected #2 to dominate.
I voted for #3 and was very surprised at the bar graph that resulted:
Palestinians 1068 votes ( 4 %)
Palestinian militants 6902 votes (28 %)
Israelis 16998 votes (68 %)
It's really nice to be able to turn CNN off. Poor damn Yanquis... :)
Ken.
P.S. I am aware these things are not akin to normal market research -- which can be biased, but with better "controls."
-- It's a complex fate, being an American.
-- Henry James