Bent Polls

Remember those polls being cited in the media that supposedly showed an overwhelming majority of Americans believing that someone in Terri Schiavo's condition should be allowed to die? The implication was that it was only religious kooks who had an interest in "interfering in a private matter."

As was pointed out at the time, the questions in these surveys were ridiculously biased--and usually inaccurate.

Well, Zogby has done some further polling using some different, more accurate questions, and predictably found that the phrasing of the question went a long way toward determining the result.

Zogby asked the question, "If a disabled person is not terminally ill, not in a coma, and not being kept alive on life support, and they have no written directive, should or should they not be denied food and water?"

79 percent said the patient should not have food and water taken away. 9 percent said that they should.

They also asked, "When there is conflicting evidence on whether or not a patient would want to be on a feeding tube, should elected officials order that a feeding tube be removed or should they order that it remain in place?"

More than twice as many people said elected officials should order it to remain in place than said they shouldn't (42%-%18), a far cry from the indication that has been given in the mainstream media.

One wonders what the outcry on the Schiavo story would have been if the media had actually been reporting the facts of the case. I found over and over again that when people were made aware of the actual facts, they were outraged.