Blitzer again let Mehlman claim public opposes Iraq withdrawal timetable

[NNN0LHI]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200608280001

Blitzer again let Mehlman claim public opposes Iraq withdrawal timetable; polling still shows otherwise

Summary: On The Situation Room, Wolf Blitzer failed to challenge Ken Mehlman's false claim that the American public is opposed to setting a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. The two polls taken in August that asked about a timetable found that a majority of Americans support the idea.

On the August 24 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, host Wolf Blitzer again left unchallenged Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Ken Mehlman's false assertion that the American public does not support a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq. Moments after asking Mehlman about a CNN poll conducted August 18-20 that showed that 52 percent of respondents believe the Iraq war is a "distraction," Blitzer allowed Mehlman to assert that the American people "understand the last thing we want to do is cut and run on a political timetable, which would give a huge victory for the enemy." However, the only two polls to ask a question about withdrawing troops from Iraq in August found that a majority of Americans support a timetable for withdrawal.

The latest public poll to ask a question about a timetable, an August 9-13 Pew Research Center for the People & the Press poll, found that 52 percent of respondents said the United States should set "a timetable for when troops will be withdrawn from Iraq," with an additional 2 percent stating that the United States "{s}hould get out now." Only 41 percent said that the United States should not set a timetable for withdrawal. While the August 18-20 CNN poll did not ask about a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq, the previous CNN poll, which was conducted August 2-3, found that 57 percent of Americans said that the "U.S. should set a timetable for withdrawal by announcing that it will remove all of its troops from Iraq by a certain date," compared with 40 percent who believe the "U.S. should keep troops in Iraq as long as necessary without setting any timetable for withdrawal."

This is at least the second time Blitzer has allowed Mehlman to claim the public opposes withdrawal from Iraq despite polling indicating otherwise. As Media Matters for America noted, on the June 20 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, Mehlman claimed that Democrats, such as Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA), support a "cut-and-run" option, a "cut-and-jog" option, or a "cut-and-walk" option -- referring to Democratic calls for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. According to Mehlman: "The fact is if you did any of these things, the enemy would see it as surrender, and it would make Americans less safe." Mehlman later went on to claim: "People may disagree about how we got there, they may disagree about some of the specifics, but they recognize that a strategy that the terrorists would see as surrender is the wrong strategy." But in the most recent CNN poll at that time, 53 percent of respondents favored setting a timetable for withdrawal. Blitzer failed to correct Mehlman's claim, despite noting the poll's results four days earlier on the June 16 edition of The Situation Room:

[Erika]

1. Wolfie will join the Faux group as journalists who never were

They're W propagandists.

[tuvor]

2. Wolf is nothing if not consistently impotent.

He always seems as though he'd rather be somewhere else.

[bananarepublican]

3. Ken and Barbie dolls! Would Ken and Leslie dolls sell as well? n/t

[unhappycamper]

4. Perhaps Wolfie should go back to the 700 Club.

http://www.yuricareport.com/Media/OnPatRobertsonWolfeBlitzerAndDavidCorn.html