Everytime someone polls re: Obama being a Muslim they give an illegitimate concern legitimacy. . .

[wndycty]

Cross posted at: http://blog.windycitywatch.com/2010/09/everytime-someone-polls-re-obama-being.html

Everytime someone polls re: Obama being a Muslim they give an illegitimate concern legitimacy. . .

. . .because it all boils down to framing.

When I see the media and its pundits wondering why polls show that a significant number of Americans and majority of Republicans believe that President Obama is either Muslim or too sympathetic to Muslims I laugh because all they need to do is look in the mirror.

Just merely polling whether or not people think the President is a Muslim gives this false concern legitimacy in the minds of some.

I wonder if many of the respondents to these polls wouldn't have given the idea a second thought until they were polled about it, especially the 33% of Republicans who responded that it "Probably wasn't true" to to a recent Newsweek poll. The same poll showed that only 7% of Republicans, yes 7 effing percent, believe it is definitely not true. Are you kidding me?

After the various poll results are published the media spends numerous hours of TV time and hundreds of column inches discussing the results which ends up reinforcing the irresponsible belief that Obama is Muslim and if he were there would be something wrong with it.

I think the media should hold itself accountable for advancing the "Obama is Muslim" meme.

The question shouldn't be "Do you think President Obama is Muslim?"

The question should be "Why is the media legitimizing a lie by polling about it?"

[damntexdem]

1. And the illegitimate concern is not that Obama might be a Muslem, ...

it's that the religion of any president of the U.S. is an issue of national concern.

[Hawkowl]

2. Let's poll if the earth is flat!

Let's poll to see how many people believe they can fly if they jump off a building! If we phrased it as something like "If you believe in Jesus enough do you think you could fly?",and polled enough, we could get the stupid bigots to start jumping off high rises to prove a point.

[wndycty]

3. Evening kick

:Kick:

[markpkessinger]

4. And don't think the media big-wigs don't know it

It's important to remember the large, corporate interests that own most of the mainstream media these days. And while they cannot always get away with overt advocacy (although FOX seems to get away with it), what they can do is to engage in endless polling about ideas and issues that are sheer nonsense, and then claim they are simply providing neutral "reporting" of those issues. And you are right: the longer and more frequently they keep one of these absurdities before the public, the more some people think there must be something to it since they are hearing so much about it. This is the kind of thing an Anderson Cooper is a master at doing: serving his masters' agenda by asserting false equivalencies on any number of issues, appearing to be neutral as he continues to report the horse race.

[wndycty]

5. Welcome Mark

:kick: