On Wed, Dec 26, 2001 at 03:44:23PM -0600, Dan Minette wrote: > > From: "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > On Wed, Dec 26, 2001 at 11:43:23AM -0600, Dan Minette wrote: > > > But, its not just that. A poll was taken among Palestinians, and 65% > > > supported the terrorist attacks. > > > > I hadn't heard about this. It sounds like it would be a difficult poll > > to handle well. Do you have a reference? > > > It was an AP poll that was referenced both on the net and on CNN. I look for > about 10 minutes for an internet reference today and couldn't find it. It > was taken between 1 and 2 weeks ago. > > Looking for it, I found another source with similar numbers. It is: > > http://www.freep.com/news/nw/isra25_20010825.htm > > This quotes a poll that shows 70% supporting the suicide bombings. The two > numbers are within typical statistical errors.
The problem with polls is, depending on how you conduct the poll (who you question, when, where, and how), and the exact phrasing of the question, you can get about any answer you want. The article you referenced did not talk about a poll for "suicide bombings" nor "terrorist attacks". What the article said was, "And 70 percent of Palestinian support suicide attacks, up from 20 percent in 1996." But seeing how you changed the meaning in your mention of it, perhaps the article writer did too. (Not to mention possible language translation difficulties). I think such evidence is completely worthless. The methodology needs to be explained in far more detail for me to place any credibility in such a poll. Unfortunately, the authors of newspaper articles almost never give a reference for the poll so that one can delve into the details. -- "Erik Reuter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.erikreuter.com/
