[Reader-list] Wash. Post.: Half of Americans poll want to restrict Muslims's civil liberties

[Oli]

Dear Vivek,

how much costs a nationwide telephone poll these days?

where are the callcenter people located, who call "you"?

how many of the polls are done daily world wide?

what is their effect on "public" opinion?

who orders polls and why?

let it be done by a different company and see the difference!

Polls have become a major means to produce "public" opinions. They are 
sometimes "scientific", e.g. the one you informed us about. In that case, 
when an university is its author, they are getting more credibility - as 
science is still an authority today. Than there are lots of "independent" 
commercial institutes, who do nothing but try to find out what product 
where to sell and so on (they call you (got your number through adress 
dealers) and ask you questions). A different type is the online poll, which 
is a basic daily thing for a "serious" website these days. it is almost 
always made for a rating of the site, tracking consumers, ...

Is the Washington Post and Cornell so different to this setting? I guess 
not.

So, let's just ignore those polls unless we are doing a critical research 
on polls.


Yours Oli


--On Monday, December 20, 2004 14:48:27 +0530 Vivek Narayanan 
<vivek at sarai.net> wrote:

> Terrifying news.  What can one say?
>
> V.
>
> <http://www.washingtonpost.com/>washingtonpost.com<http://www.washingtonp
> ost.com/>
> NATION IN BRIEF
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9289-2004Dec17.html?sub=AR
>
> Saturday, December 18, 2004; Page A28
>
> Limit Muslim Americans' Rights, Many in Poll Say
>
> ITHACA, N.Y. -- Nearly half of Americans believe the government should
> restrict the civil liberties of Muslim Americans, according to a
> nationwide telephone poll of 715 people.
>
> The Cornell University survey found that 44 percent favored at least some
> restrictions on the civil liberties of Muslim Americans. Forty-eight
> percent said liberties should not be restricted in any way. The margin of
> error was plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.
>
> Pollsters found that Republicans and people who described themselves as
> highly religious were more apt to support curtailing Muslims' civil
> liberties than Democrats or people who say they are less religious.
> Researchers also found that respondents who paid more attention to
> television news were more likely to fear terrorist attacks and support
> limiting the rights of Muslim Americans.
>
>
>
>
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