Iraqis: life is getting better

[KevinTheOmnivore]

Quinnipiac just did a poll of al registered voters in NYC. They polled 1,200 people.

You don't need a huge sample size to get a window into thoughts and opinion. Doing what you suggest, targeting people you assume are disgruntled, is the definition of bias in polling. Why only the recently displaced? How about we find Iraqis who were "displaced" for decades and decades under Saddam...I'll bet they might think differentlythan the "cross section" you would target.

As long as it's random and consistent, 5,000 people is a very good sample size. If you don't like polls, ok, but I don't recall you throwing a fit like this over any other polls here...

[Preechr]

...and how would Iraqi refugees have any idea of whether or not things have gotten better in Iraq? Why ask them?

[derrida]

Am I the only one who is unsettled by the fact that our main picture of iraq in the mainstream media is coming to us via poll?

[derrida]

I just found out that the percentage of iraqis saying that life is better is 49 percent. Kinda funny that that wasn't in the original article.

[Abcdxxxx]

Derrida, you're insane. How is this poll the one picture mainstream media is providing us? There are stories every day concerning Iraq, and what with the Dems trying to push an exit agenda, it's rarely positive. Maybe what you should be troubled by is that this poll is one of the rare examples of a positive look at Iraq, because go figure, there are entire regions of the country which are leaning towards the positive future we all pray for.

49% is huge! That's amazing. You wouldn't know any percentage of Iraqis had a positive word to say about the situation from our mainstream media. Perhaps that's what you mean, and I apologize if I misread that, but knowing you, I doubt it.

[derrida]

Originally Posted by Abcdxxxx

Derrida, you're insane. How is this poll the one picture mainstream media is providing us? There are stories every day concerning Iraq, and what with the Dems trying to push an exit agenda, it's rarely positive. Maybe what you should be troubled by is that this poll is one of the rare examples of a positive look at Iraq, because go figure, there are entire regions of the country which are leaning towards the positive future we all pray for.

49% is huge! That's amazing. You wouldn't know any percentage of Iraqis had a positive word to say about the situation from our mainstream media. Perhaps that's what you mean, and I apologize if I misread that, but knowing you, I doubt it.

even though a poll is still only a snapshot, it can still give a more global picture than a story about some anecdotal event. No one is arguing that horrible things arent happening in Iraq, and so the "every day" stories about violence are not particularly useful in determining the status of the country as a whole. It strikes me as odd that, if there are regions leaning towards a positive future, why aren't there reporters on the ground there? It certainly must be easier to do so there than in the more hopeless regions, right? Or, is it that those regions simply havent learned far enough, and foreigners and iraqi news crews are still targeted for kidnapping or murder?

[Abcdxxxx]

Well then we can agree on something for once.

I think the disdain for how this war operation is being run overshadows any interest in stories which might negate those issues...and our media likes to focus on the negatives.... nothing new there. People are still claiming the media isn't reporting the true horrors of Iraq, so that's their focus. Hell, MSNBC had live reports from the lame attempt at a Pentagon protest this past weekend. So they're trying, and that's largely because the dissident point of view has been mainstreamed, I think.

Now there's been a recent trend of stories on the thriving areas of Iraq, like the Kurdistan section, and that sort of thing, but they're just seen as poor attempts to get the "5 soldiers killed" headlines off the front pages.