Spinning It
Engram has an interesting post up at Back Talk about whether or not Iraqis believe that “life is better today than it was under Saddam Hussein.” Back Talk links to this poll and says yes, the majority of Iraqis believe that life has gotten better (slightly, but still). Head on over there and take a look at the graph.
Engram is making one mistake: if you want to know what the majority of Iraqis think, you have to combine the numbers. In this case, the absolute majority (almost 60%) believe that life in Iraq today is just as bad or worse as it was under Saddam. Engram blames opponents of the war for spinning information coming out of Iraq in such a way that everything looks bad, I accuse Engram of spinning information to make it look better than it is.
It is a nice try though.
Cross posted at my own blog.
13 Responses to “Spinning It”
Thanks for the link to my post.
It’s true, I should have said that of those who believe that things have changed, more Iraqis than not think that things have changed for the better.
You can combine those who think that things have remained the same to suggest that:
(a) most Iraqis think that things have stayed the same or gotten worse compared to the Saddam Hussein era (which is how you prefer to think of it)
–or–
(b) most Iraqis think that things have stayed the same or gotten better compared to the Saddam Hussein era
These are equally true statements. Does it say something about you that you chose the former interpretation over the latter? I have not read your blog before, but the fact that you would take two equally fair (and equally uninformative) interpretations and choose the more negative one suggests to me that you are a man of the left. I make that inference because many on the left will stop at nothing to spin news in the negative direction. That’s what you did here. Nice try, but it makes no sense (which I hope is clear to you now). It’s ironic that you titled your post “Spinning it.” That is a more accurace title than you realized.
Yes things are going swimmingly. Liebermon and McClown shop for rugs in markets, never mind the 100 troops and Apache helicopters. Hokey Joe ignores what the troops say and comes back to do his spin. The “good news” story was over with Cheny’s “last throes”. I prefer the honesty of Gates and Patreus.
Rudi: isn’t it fascinating that whenever one criticizes Bush / the surge / the Iraq War, one is automatically labeled ‘a man of the left’?
MvdG – It must be your Liberal side, not the Conservative side. Even that “rat” Peggy Noonan is jumping ship, must be the Frechwoman in her.
Michael,
I did not label you a man of the left for criticizing the war. I pointed out that there were two equally correct (and equally imprecise) ways to characterize the poll results, and I noted that you opted for the more negative one when it would have been just as easy (and just as wrong) to choose the more positive one. I then stated that I have seen this sort of thing among those on the left quite often, and that was the basis of my inference.
Again, I make that inference not because you criticize the war but because of the choice you made when looking at two equally correct interpretations of the polling results. You opted for the more negative way to say, which is ironic given that you think that I am the one doing the spinning.
I don’t spin. I present the data for all to see so that, if my words happen to be imprecise, the reader can decide for himself or herself what the facts are.
Engram,
Michael is one of the center-right contributers here. Frankly this is quite amazing:
Can’t one ask you exactly the same question since you chose the latter over the former in your original post? Pot, meet kettle.
Entropy Did you read Engrams post? He on your side and now just a LINO, just like RINO, but a Liberal turncoat.
Besides, Engram’s interpretation is only ‘positve’ if you believe that life under Saddam Hussein was quite alright.
Rudi,
Yeah, hence my comment. I don’t see how he’s on “my” side though since I’m neither a LINO nor a RINO.
Reading his post, I get the impression that Engram went from left-of-center Liberal professor pre-911 to someone right-of-center now. I don’t believe your a Lefty Entropy. LOL – This poll used a sample size of 2000, the Lancet sample size was 12,000. Now which study can claim to be more precise?
I found the poll results confusing and kept wishing I could question PEW about the circumstances behid the numbers.
1. Why were the results so different when the quesion was ‘how are you doing?’ from when the question was about how Iraq as a whole is doing?
2. Did they keep separate records for Sunni vs Shia neighborhoods. If so, it would have been interesting to compare the results.
3. Re the question regarding outtlook for the future, I wonder if the pollees envisioned that with US troops stll present or not.
domjat – The second link above to the BBC article addresses some of that.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6451841.stm
The article also links to a PDF copy of the actual poll. Download and enjoy.
Thanks, Rudi.
Considering the number reporting problems with clean water, electicity, and lack of jobs, I’m surprised the ratings weren’t much lower.
Maybe just still being alive makes the other problems seem less drastic.