Tuesday, March 16, 2004
Iraq Opinion Poll posted by Richard Seymour
Like shit to a blanket, the BBC are clinging to government propaganda for dear life - presumably to save it from the chop. Their coverage of the latest opinion poll from Iraq produced the most unbalanced, sanitised, Orwellian piece of reporting it has been my displeasure to wake up to on a Tuesday morning. Granted, I'm always pissed off on a Tuesday morning - but the BBC have a duty to soothe early-week hangovers, not aggravate them.The latest opinion poll from Iraq has been given such a glib, puerile, that's-alright-then spin over at Auntie's Place that I feel duty-bound to point out where their analysis might have been a bit slack:
1) The lead story noted that most people in Iraq felt that life had got better. This was its opener:
"An opinion poll suggests most Iraqis feel their lives have improved since the war in Iraq began about a year ago.
The survey, carried out for the BBC and other broadcasters, also suggests many are optimistic about the next 12 months and opposed to violence."
Quite impressive. But what start with these findings? Other findings are equally interesting, surely? Such as the fact that 50.9% of Iraqis said they were opposed to the occupation of Iraq, while only 39% suported it . Or that "Opinion was evenly split on whether the invasion of Iraq had humiliated (41 per cent) or liberated (42 per cent) the country."
2) That's it, really. Er...
I've written all I want to say about allowing opinion polls of the public in a defeated nation determine our stance toward imperial aggression here . The main point, for those too flipping lazy to click on the link is, quite simply that "[US power] must be opposed for what it is, not for what opinion polls say about it."
A couple of folks from the MediaLens website have been working out their views on this, especially the spectacular ways in which the Beeb chose to spin the evidence.