From: niepornt@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (David Marc Nieporent)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Pat Robertson's ACLJ presents skewed poll
Date: 15 Sep 92 17:35:05 GMT
Organization: Princeton University
Originator: news@nimaster

In <1992Sep15.140720.27888@news.ysu.edu> doug@cc.ysu.edu (Doug Sewell) writes:

>These appeared on Youngstown Free-Net.  The original article was in
>the "Family Magazine" Sig, which is run by Focus On The Family.  The
>followup was posted to the general-discussion area (the kiosk) of
>Youngstown Free-Net, since the Family Magazine sysops discontinued
>the discussion area of their sig after deciding they didn't want to
>give an open forum to dissent from their views.

>[ Article crossposted from yfn.kiosk ]
>[ Author was Kelley Miller (ae642@yfn.ysu.edu) ]
>[ Posted on Tue, 15 Sep 1992 13:44:13 GMT ]

>The American Center for Law and Justice, Pat Robertson's legal group
>who's sole purpose is to act as foil to the American Civil Liberties
>Union, has published a poll concerning the average american attitude
>toward various subjects.  This poll is badly and obviously slanted.
>Here is a copy of this poll, as posted in the YFN Family Magazine,
>along with my comments on this poll.

I agreed with just about everything, but here are a couple of clarifying
comments.

>>IMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM;
>>                                                            :
>>:                   CENTER SURVEY CONFIRMS                  :
>>:                      AMERICAN OPINION                     :
>>:                       ON KEY ISSUES                       :
>>:                                                           :
>>:       Recently the American Center for Law and Justice    :
>>:    sent out thousands of "American Opinion Surveys" to    :
>>:    Americans who were randomly selected from conserva-    :
>			 ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^
>>:    tive and traditional mailing lists.                    :
>      ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^
> If the ACLJ had been interested in a truly representitive sample
> of American opinion, they would have chosen a random sampling
> of ALL people, not just a sampling of persons who were in all
> likelyhood predisposed to agree with the views presented by the
> polsters.    	

>>:                                                           :
>>:       The survey included 13 questions.  Over 30,000      :
>>:    people responded.  The results, which follow, confirm  :
>>:    that most Americans agree with the Center's positions  :
>	   ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^
> This should read "...most Americans who are conservitive and
> subscribe to traditional family falues...", as that is where
> the sampling came from.

>>:    on the key issues facing our nation.                   :
>>:                                                           :

>>:                                                           :
>>:         * 98.8% agreed that public school students        :
>>:           should not be prevented from holding Bible      :
>>:           studies or having Bible Clubs during non-       :
>>:           classroom times.                                :

> Again, look at the wording.  There is no mention of whether these
> clubs should be allowed to meet at school or not, just whether they
> should be allowed to meet during NON-CLASSROOM time.  If the gerund
>"in school" had been included, I suspect the figure would have been
> lower.  

(Actually, the Supreme Court agrees.  If a school allows students to
hold meetings for non-academic clubs, it has to allow them regardless of
content.  Thus, bible study clubs would be allowed.)

>>:         * 95.1% agreed that the public display of re-     :
>>:           ligious symbols on public property does not     :
>>:           represent and "establishment of religion" as    :
>>:           described in the First Amendment.               :

> Here is yet another example of selective wording, which makes a
> serious impact on the meaning.  Note there is no indication of
> these symbols being paid for by tax payer money.

Furthermore, who cares?  If 95% of people agree that the square root of
2 is equal to 12, does that make it so?  It IS an establishment of
religion.  Maybe 95% of people think it should be allowed, anyway, but
that's a separate issue.

>In closing, I am highly sceptical of any poll which cites a consistant
>95%+ agreement rating for 13 items.  This is an obvious attempt to sway 
>opinion by presenting skewed information.

Actually, I was pretty skeptical of all their numbers, which looked like
they were made up so that the stats wouldn't look faked.  When they
report that 98.3% of people think that the exploitation of women, men and
children through pornography is morally and socially wrong, my first
reaction is, what about the other 1.7%?  Especially when they've
selected the sample to only include religious wackos (tm) anyway.

-- 
David M. Nieporent   | Orioles 1992 World Series Champions
niepornt@phoenix.    | Mike Mussina 1992 AL Cy Young Winner
   princeton.edu     | Brady Anderson 1992 AL MVP
Vote Clinton/Gore '92.   Four more months!
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