You might remember that in last week’s blog I discussed two Enquirer headlines that had caught my attention. One was about the death penalty; the other about “green” jobs. Well, I’ve got two more for you.
First, in Saturday’s Enquirer, on page A-15 was a story headlined “Poll Finds Sympathy for Frustrated Occupiers.” The logical assumption one could make from the headline is that more people support the occupiers than oppose them. But nowhere in the article does it actually say what percentage of people OPPOSE the occupiers, so I went directly to the Associated Press GfK Poll, and it turns out that a majority of people OPPOSE the occupiers (56%), and only 37% support them.
Another fact the article fails to mention is that 36% of those polled were Democrats and only 23% were Republicans. (The rest were Independents or refused to give a party affiliation.) So the poll was skewed towards Democrats, and this is particularly important when you consider that 64% of those who said they support the occupiers were Democrats, and only 14% were Republicans.
I must once again ask, as I did last week, “Does someone have an agenda here?”
The second headline that caught my attention this week was in Sunday’s Enquirer on page A-18, and it read “Biggest Study: Cancer, Cell Phones Not Linked.” The article says in part: “The biggest study ever to examine the possible connection between cell phones and cancer found no evidence of any link… The study concluded there was no difference in cancer rates between people who had used a cell phone for about a decade and those who did not.”
Here’s what bugged me. I’ve seen alarmist stories on the front page of major newspapers and on the national news on T.V. for years speculating that cell phones cause cancer. The message was in effect – Be afraid, be very afraid, of your cell phone.
Now the largest study in history says there’s no danger, that it was all just hype, and where does this breaking news flash appear? On page A-18. I watch a fair amount of news coverage on T.V., and I haven’t seen it there either.
The bottom line is, in my opinion, the public deserves straight, un-biased coverage of the news by the press, and too often, we just don’t get it. Thank God for FOX News, and this blog!
