{"id":194,"date":"2006-07-26T17:17:14","date_gmt":"2006-07-27T00:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=194"},"modified":"2006-07-28T22:49:24","modified_gmt":"2006-07-29T05:49:24","slug":"wmd-delusion-disorder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=194","title":{"rendered":"WMD Delusion Disorder"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new Harris poll<\/a> finds that:<\/p>\n

Despite being widely reported in the media that the U.S. and other countries have not found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, surprisingly; more U.S. adults (50%) think that Iraq had such weapons when the U.S. invaded Iraq. This is an increase from 36 percent in February 2005.<\/span><\/p>\n

As Theodore Sturgeon said, “It aint what you don’t know that kills you. It’s what you know that just aint so”<\/em>. And apparently about half of U.S. adults think they know that Saddam had WMDs. Whose fault is that?<\/p>\n

Certainly the Bush administration bears some responsibility for its aggressive and fallacious claims as they tried to scare America into its first preemptive war. But even BushCo no longer peddles those lies. The real culprit is, of course, the media.<\/p>\n

Harris begins its report saying, “Despite being widely reported in the media…”<\/em> But that imposes a much too narrow view. The media, as a whole, has indeed reported that WMDs were not found, but we need to be more specific. The number one cable news network is Fox News. It is fair to say that their reporting is not particularly balanced. In fact, studies have shown that Fox viewers are far more likely to believe things that are demonstrably false, than are viewers of other networks. The Program on International Policy Attitudes<\/a> (PIPA) report says in summary:<\/p>\n

“Those who primarily watch Fox News are significantly more likely to have misperceptions, while those who primarily listen to NPR or watch PBS are significantly less likely.”<\/span><\/p>\n

These poll results are more evidence of how dangerous the media can be. If, after three years, the public can still exhibit this scale of ignorance, we obviously have a lot of work yet to do, both in correcting the public record and reforming the media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new Harris poll finds that: Despite being widely reported in the media that the U.S. and other countries have not found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, surprisingly; more U.S. adults (50%) think that Iraq had such weapons when the U.S. invaded Iraq. This is an increase from 36 percent in February 2005. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-38","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":103,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=103","url_meta":{"origin":194,"position":0},"title":"Reporter Held Hostage In Iraq","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/15\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"There are few, if any, non-military professions that expose its practitioners to the measure of risk that journalism does. Yet some independent journalists answer the call with the hopes of providing a vital public service in a dangerous world. Too frequently these reporters are targeted by combatants and pay a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=33","url_meta":{"origin":194,"position":1},"title":"Single Informant Theory","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/4\/2005","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been two years since the onset of the Bush administration's mis-adventure's in Iraq. By now, everyone knows that the tales spun by an obediant media into a gullible public about weapons of mass destruction were, indeed, lies. The masquerade continues. The Commission on the Intelligence Capabilitites of the United\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1173,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1173","url_meta":{"origin":194,"position":2},"title":"Smithsonian Corrects Text Accompanying Bush Portrait","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/12\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday I reported that a description associated with the newly unveiled portrait of George W. Bush at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery was grossly misleading. It said that the Bush administration was... \"...marked by a series of catastrophic events\" including \"the attacks on September 11, 2001, that led to wars\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art\/Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Art\/Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":478,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=478","url_meta":{"origin":194,"position":3},"title":"Bob Woodward’s Monumental Task","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/19\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Washington Post's Assistant Managing Editor, Bob Woodward, participated in an online chat yesterday. The very first question challenged him to answer for the failures of the media leading up to the war in Iraq. Rancho Mirage, Calif.: \"In light of Watergate, why did the 'investigative' branch of the press\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":293,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=293","url_meta":{"origin":194,"position":4},"title":"The Iraq Study Group’s Media Blindness","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/8\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"In the 96 pages of the ISG report, there is not a single reference to television, radio, newspapers, or any other media in Iraq or worldwide. Yesterday the Bush family consigliore, James Baker, and his Leisure World Rockettes, released the product of their nine month review of the sad state\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":951,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=951","url_meta":{"origin":194,"position":5},"title":"Bill O’Reilly Wants ALL Of Iraq’s Oil","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/19\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"As if Bill O'Reilly hasn't given us enough evidence of his stupidity, he is now advocating a plan of his own design that, in effect, calls for Iraq to turn over 100% percent of its oil production to the United States. \"So far, the American taxpayer has forked over more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}