Dissecting a recent poll. CNN makes it up. [View All]

[PhillySane]

As part of their latest Public Opinion Poll, CNN posed this question:

"As you may know, a website called Wikileaks has displayed thousands of confidential U.S. government
documents concerning U.S. diplomatic and military policies. Do you approve or disapprove of the
Wikileaks website displaying these documents?"

What's the headline they pull out of this?

CNN Poll: WikiLeaks has few fans in U.S. (with a nice picture of Julian Assange)

Notice how the question is worded. "As you may know" not Do you know? or How much do you know about Wikileaks, just "As you may know". This assumes everyone they ask this question knows this about Wikileaks. Bad research technique. Screen out those who know what they're talking about first, before you ask a loaded question.

Secondly, the respondents simple said whether or not they approve or disapprove of Wikileaks displaying these documents, not that they approve or disapprove of Wikileaks itself, yet the headline reads as if THAT was the question.

What should have been the headline is that the 18-34 demographic doesn't even register on this poll. Why?
Because they weren't even asked the question. Had they been, I'm sure the overall results would have been much different.

Please CNN, stop making news up and report it, thank you.

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/12/30/rel17n.pdf