People in foreign countries generally either backed the U.S.-led war
or were evenly split between supporting and opposing it.
Overall, 60 percent of Americans held at least one of those views in
polls reported between January and September by the Program on
International Policy Attitudes, based at the University of Maryland in
College Park, and the polling firm, Knowledge Networks based in Menlo
Park, Calif.
"While we cannot assert that these misperceptions created the support
for going to war with Iraq, it does appear likely that support for the war
would be substantially lower if fewer members of the public had these
misperceptions," said Steven Kull, who directs Maryland's program.
In fact, no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq. U.S.
intelligence has found no clear evidence that Saddam was working closely
with al-Qaida or was involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Gallup polls
found large majorities opposed to the war in most countries.
PIPA's seven polls, which included 9,611 respondents, had a margin of
error from 2 to 3.5 percent.
The analysis released Thursday also correlated the misperceptions with
the primary news source of the mistaken respondents. For example, 80
percent of those who said they relied on Fox News and 71 percent of those
who said they relied on CBS believed at least one of the three
misperceptions.
The comparable figures were 47 percent for those who said they relied
most on newspapers and magazines and 23 percent for those who said they
relied on PBS or National Public Radio.
The reasons for the misperceptions are numerous, Kull and other
analysts said.
They noted that the Bush administration had misstated or exaggerated
some of the intelligence findings, with Bush himself saying in May: "We
found the weapons of mass destruction … and we'll find more as time goes
by."
The Bush administration has also been a factor in persistent
confusion.
Last month, for example, Bush said there was no evidence that Saddam
was involved in the Sept. 11 attack after Vice President Dick Cheney
suggested a link. Cheney, in a "Meet the Press" interview, had described
Iraq as "the geographic base of the terrorists who had us under assault
now for many years, but most especially on 9-11."
Why some news audiences had more accurate impressions than others was
less clear.
Kull cited instances in which TV and newspapers gave prominent coverage
to reports that banned weapons might have been found in Iraq, but only
modest coverage when those reports turned out to be wrong.
Susan Moeller, a University of Maryland professor, said that much
reporting had consisted of "stenographic coverage of government
statements," with less attention to whether the government's statements
were accurate.
The study found that belief in inaccurate information often persisted,
and that misconceptions were much more likely among backers of the war.
Last month, as in June, for example, nearly a quarter of those polled
thought banned weapons had been found in Iraq. Nearly half thought in
September that there was clear evidence that Saddam had worked closely
with al-Qaida.
Among those with one of the three misconceptions, 53 percent supported
the war. Among those with two, 78 percent supported it. Among those with
three, 86 percent backed it. By contrast, less than a quarter of those
polled who had none of the misconceptions backed the war.
On the Web:
To review the study, go to http://www.pipa.org
