A new CBS News poll, released Monday night, determined that Americans are almost exactly evenly split on whether Congress should “pass a non-binding resolution against sending additional troops to Iraq” with 44 percent in favor and 45 percent opposed. But in highlighting how the Senate on Tuesday “will begin a three-day debate on a non-binding, symbolic resolution stating its disapproval of President Bush's Iraq troop build-up,” CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric ignored that finding of an evenly-divided nation. Instead, she focused on how “a total of 53 percent say Congress ought to block funding for additional troops or for the war entirely.”
In offering up that number, which combined two answers, she obscured the poll question’s real news: A piddling 8 percent wish to “block all funding” for the war in Iraq. As an on-screen graphic showed, to get to 53 percent Couric and CBS producers combined the 8 percent with the 45 percent who want to “block funding for more troops” -- a percent only slightly higher than, and within the three-point margin of error, the 42 percent who want to “allow all funding.” CBS’s graphic did not include the 42 percent result.
Couric read this short item on the February 12 CBS Evening News:
“Tomorrow the House will begin a three-day debate on a non-binding, symbolic resolution stating its disapproval of President Bush’s Iraq troop build up. But our new CBS News poll shows a majority of Americans wants Congress to go even further. A total of 53 percent say Congress ought to block funding for additional troops or for the war entirely.”
The PDF of the CBS News poll, conducted February 8-11, reported:
The war in Iraq continues to take a toll on opinions of the President, but when it comes to what Congress ought to do about the war in Iraq, the public remains divided, much as it was last month. A slight majority thinks Congress ought to either block funding for more troops or block funding for the war entirely.WHAT SHOULD CONGRESS DO ABOUT FUNDING FOR WAR?
Block all funding: 8%
Block funding for more troops: 45
Allow all funding: 4277% of Democrats want Congress to block funding for additional troops or for the war entirely, while 69% of Republicans think Congress should allow all funding for the war. 44% would like to see Congress pass a non-binding resolution against sending additional troops to Iraq. Nearly the same percentage -- 45% -- oppose the resolution.
These views are highly correlated with partisanship. 57% of Democrats think Congress should pass a non-binding resolution against sending more troops to Iraq, while 65% of Republicans think they should not do so. Independents are divided.
—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center
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Comments Policy
Politicians and liberal media are ruining America
February 12, 2007 - 20:51 ET by GregEI want to vote to stop funding Congress. Where's that sign-up sheet?
GregE Funny!
February 12, 2007 - 20:56 ET by Six String SpiffYou are so very right sir... Reagan was the last man to actually do what HE FELT WAS RIGHT... not these weather vanes we have in Cingress now. They say everything that needs to be said to get re-elected and them WAMMO!! The socialists take off their costumes.
Sure, I watch the MSM... Through a pair of crosshairs.
Support The Troops?
February 12, 2007 - 21:19 ET by whodatHow can Congress claim to support the troops ....
then deny them the help (more troops) they need?
So they're going to waste t
February 12, 2007 - 21:14 ET by FlashmanSo they're going to waste three days, don't they know there's a war on?
Oh really flashman ?
February 13, 2007 - 00:07 ET by SportPoliticsOh really flashman ? Gosh and golly gee, I had the 4 year long impression this was Bush' war,and he's the decider,the Commander In Chief, and it was his mistakes and ignorance and lying that took us into Iraq...
Wow, now all of a sudden, the congress can make a decision, after they yakk Tuesday thru Friday ? How dat ? Help me my lips are flapping and I'm a liberal. Has the living breathing document taken another breath ?
Hey more news for 4 year long liars(known as democrats). It takes 60 jackasses in the Senate to do anything, because with any less donkeys dinking around, they don't have the ability to crush the minority's blocking, aka moving to CLOTURE. The amazing USConstitution came to life again, just as I predicted, as soon as the democruds needed a scapegoat, and the republicans were done beating themselves about the head and losing the 06 election, for not accomplishing the conservative agenda with utter and complete lack of cloture control in the Senate.
Ah well, at least the jackasses have a smooth lying machine, that fools lots of everyone all the time.
Enough wussy nonsense! Tabl
February 12, 2007 - 21:36 ET by JDWEnough wussy nonsense! Table the troop block and vote to kill funding for the entire damn thing. Show America what victory really means.
JDW
Kerry: "You know, education, if you make the most of it ... you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."
Sheesh...I am pulling my hair
February 12, 2007 - 21:57 ET by BlondeSheesh...I am pulling my hair out by the roots.
The "vast majority" has no clue about the parliamentary rules in the Senate and the House.
They rely upon the (arghh) old media to understand what is happening.
This is a false premise, rooted in a canard, based upon a lie.
How much more idiotic does it get?
Unbelievable.
I would never, for one half of one second, believe that half of this country cares to defund the war while we have troops in harms way.
This idiocy is beyond all belief.
Shame on you, Katie Couric. You are filthy and beyond the pale.
You noticed?JDWKerry: "
February 12, 2007 - 22:19 ET by JDWYou noticed?
JDW
Kerry: "You know, education, if you make the most of it ... you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."
No offense meant to you Blo
February 13, 2007 - 08:33 ET by Right2thePointNo offense meant to you Blond, but Katie needs to go back to showing her clevage, it is her only redeeming quality.
When is CBS going to cut the
February 12, 2007 - 23:15 ET by midnight cowboyWhen is CBS going to cut the funding for Ms. Couric? Syndicated rerruns have higher ratings. Pull out now!!
Couric
February 12, 2007 - 23:35 ET by iveseenitallAdding the two together and reporting it diffently makes Couric a liar. Lets see, Russert on the witness stand and Couric on the nightly news. That's at least two liars in the press. Do ya' think there might be more?
NEVER, NEVER trust a liberal
I would also like to question
February 13, 2007 - 03:44 ET by old croI would also like to question the Democrat's "mandate" that has appeared all of a sudden. Geez, you win a couple seats in congress and you rule the world! Remember how the press dismissed president Bush when he claimed a mandate after the 04 elections. I am getting quite annoyed at the MSM and the strings they are constantly jerking people around with. Their word manipulation and factual omission in "reporting" is beyond the pale.
That's what I was trying to r
February 13, 2007 - 08:57 ET by ucThat's what I was trying to remember to write. >> Hillary on taking "responsibility for her vote" >> I took responsibility for my war vote - I took part in a non-binding resolution, you should be so brave.
Yes, Hillary, "we could do better" and you and Bill most certainly could too. Hillary, what happened to endorsing BLOOD SPORT? And, would you stop projecting your psychosis on President Bush.
42%
February 13, 2007 - 09:17 ET by kittlesnbitsSo the 42% who support all funding are irrelevant. I've seen the msm do some incredible things, but to make the 42% disappear into thin air?? AMAZING! They could show the David's... Blaine & Copperfield... a thing or two.
apples and oranges. Why not 95%?
February 13, 2007 - 11:50 ET by Gary HallThe 53% number is apples and oranges.
Why not just combine all of the answers:
New wording for Katie:
She threw out half the data?
February 13, 2007 - 16:35 ET by dahliatraversShe threw out half the data? Rank, unadulterated bias. News twisting, not news reporting.
Keep telling people what they
February 13, 2007 - 16:49 ET by bigtimerKeep telling people what they think....'the majority of people according to our polls' is a phrase I am sick of too....we have a war to win, and already we are having a Presidential election almost two years before the next election, I am tired of all of this already...
That is what the lying spewing blathering leftists count on...
We must not tire.
Take a break now and then...but never tire.
Oh and by the way....I wonder if Couric is going to last til the next election...won't matter, they will just replace her with a David Gregory/Chip Reid type.