LA Times - Beastmaster for the Corporate Shills!
Well, I am glad to report that the Los Angeles Times newspaper did not come today. I am praying that this non-delivery continues forever but there is a niggling doubt that I am not so lucky. This persistent anxiety is probably because the Times has ignored my requests until today and I am paranoid this soggy rag will appear on my doorstep tomorrow. I won't regurgitate my earlier blog entry on this issue. I'm completely bored with it myself. I do have another bone to pick with this news source though.
Here's the latest headline, "Bush's Ratings Sink, but Trust Remains." Apparently, the Times conducted a telephone survey of 1,555 adults last Sunday through Wednesday. Fine, the LA Times surveyed Los Angeles people, right? Wrong.....
How the poll was conducted:
"The Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll contacted 1,555 adults nationwide by telephone Sunday through Wednesday. Telephone numbers were chosen from a list of all exchanges in the nation, and random-digit dialing techniques allowed listed and unlisted numbers to be contacted. Multiple attempts were made to contact each number. Results were weighted slightly to conform with census figures for sex, race, age, education and region. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. For certain subgroups, the error margin may be somewhat higher. Poll results may also be affected by factors such as question wording and the order in which questions were presented."....Blah, Blah, Blah... they lost me at the word, "nationwide." So, we can't know the demographics of this telephone survey, except that the respondants are adults.
Ummm, okay, so the LA Times polled America. From the headline, you'd assume that one of the big questions in this telephone survey is "Do you trust President Bush." That's what I assumed and in looking at the survey questions themselves, there is nothing quite so blatant, but many questions were asked about whether he fulfilled his campaign and anti-terrorist promises and in each case a sizeable majority of the respondants say he did not.
Skip the Times lame and biased "analyses" and "opinions" and go to page three of this article. Here is the real deal:
Hard numbers
Highlights from the Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll:
54% - Disapprove of President Bush's job performance.
62% - Think the country needs to move in a new direction.
45% - Trust Bush to protect the nation against terrorism.
46% - Intend to vote for Democrats in the November elections
I guess the LA Times thinks it is significant that anyone trusts the Bush administration and extrapolates this nugget of positivity into the misleading headline above. The headline makes no sense!! How many people do you disapprove of and will not support and yet trust? The numbers above do not convince me that "trust" remains for ol GWB! Why would this "news" paper push this misconception? Bush has admitted that he doesn't read newspapers and is not a big supporter of them, so why must the LA Times sell out and become just another corporate propaganda machine? Dumb question, I tell myself. Because wars, graft, greed, corruption, sell papers. It's all about the Benjamins and 45 percent of Americans surveyed apparently want to perpetuate the Benjaminian principles of, erm... well, graft, greed and corruption. *sigh*
I am still reeling from the horror of the re-election of this group of corporate shills. The LA Times and the other corporate newletter publishers want us to believe that Bush & Co. can be trusted with our health, our children, our environment, our economy, our future even when their own surveys tell them we don't believe the lie. Well, most of us don't believe it. The 45 percent who think the Bush administration has any redeeming value belong in Orwell's "Animal Farm" lined up like good little piggies, ready for the slaughter. Unfortunately, they're taking the rest of us along for the boxcar ride.
