It's from about mid 2003 (from the miami herald IIRC but i have not the
link) :
What can we learn from our ignorance?
By Fred Brown
If more than a third of Americans believes weapons of mass destruction
were found in Iraq, what does that tell us?
That more than a third of the public is totally out of touch?
That 34 percent of the people don't believe news reports?
That roughly one in three people want to give the answers they think
pollsters are looking for?
Or that people will believe what they want to believe - or are
conditioned to believe - regardless of all evidence to the contrary?
The opinion survey that found this 34 percent brain-dead factor has a
daunting name: The Program on International Policy Attitudes/Knowledge
Networks Poll.
But even if its name doesn't trip lyrically off the tongue, this poll,
done at the University of Maryland, had a large enough sample to have a
lot of credibility: 1,258 adults. It had a margin of error of 3.5
percent.
It was conducted in mid-May, when it was blatantly obvious that no
weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq - at least, not to
that point.
And it was as plain as the gas mask on your face that chemical or germ
warfare had not been used on any of the troops sent to Iraq to look for
those agents of war.
Yet 22 percent of the people who responded to this poll believed that
Iraq used chemical or biological weapons "in the war that just ended."
Where do these people get their information?
There's a serious warning here for those us who think we're engaged in
the business of informing the public. Some people just aren't getting
the message. And we're losing our credibility, from The New York Times
down to small-town media.
No matter what the facts are - or, maybe more to the point, regardless
of what the news media say what the facts are - roughly a third of the
population thinks it's all a bunch of lies. Made-up stuff. Liberal bias.
Whatever.
Before the war, President Bush and members of his administration argued
repeatedly and prominently that Iraq had to be invaded because it was
stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.
The president now has declared that the major part of the fighting is
over. But he never has said that weapons of mass destruction actually
have been found in Iraq - and certainly never has claimed that WMDs were
used against American troops.
But for a lot of people, the original argument was good enough. If that
was the Bush rationale, well, it must have a basis in fact.
"It's partly a test of whether you believe the president," said Peggy
Cuciti, who directs the "Mind of Colorado" poll conducted annual by the
University of Colorado at Denver's Graduate School of Public Affairs.
"They may just be saying they believe they're there."
This is the sort of thing that creates peril for pollsters and jitters
for journalists.
The director of the University of Maryland's poll, Steve Kull, was
quoted in a Knight Ridder report last weekend as finding the poll
results "striking." To say the least.
"Given the intensive news coverage and high levels of public attention,"
Kull said, "this level of misinformation suggests some Americans may be
avoiding having an experience of cognitive dissonance."
In other words, they won't accept facts that conflict with their biases.
Kull said most of those who believed weapons had been found were
supporters of the war.
Weapons may yet be found, but it hasn't happened yet.
That's not all, either. Another survey before the war in Iraq found that
half of those polled believed Iraqis were among the Sept. 11 hijackers
who flew airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
But none of those 19 hijackers came from Iraq. Most were from Saudi
Arabia.
This survey does more than reflect the sad state of Americans' knowledge
about public affairs. It also reflects poorly on a press whose judgments
about what's truly important and what's merely interesting aren't always
clear.
If the media did a better job of interpreting accurately and with a
sense of proportion, maybe its interpretations and analyses would have
more credibility.
Only a few people - a shrinking number, apparently - are willing to
study current events in depth. Denver pollster Floyd Ciruli says between
2 and 10 percent of the population are "extremely involved" in following
the news, and only 1 to 2 percent closely follow foreign affairs.
And roughly 30 percent, he said, "will believe anything."
"It's always amazing how ill-informed people are," said Lori Weigel,
Denver-based vice president of Public Opinion Strategies.
"But ask them who won 'American Idol' and they'll know."