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Those Bogus Syria Polls
Those Bogus Syria Polls
by Stuart Elliott New Appeal to Reason blog Sept 28, 2013 Listening to NPR's Diane Rehm show on Friday, I heard a caller claim that a poll has shown that 70 percent of Syrians support Bashar Assad. Regrettably, none of the experts on the show had enough knowledge or guts to refute this claim which has gotten wide circulation on Facebook and the internet. After all, Syria, like most police states doesn't allow independent polls. The 70 percent figure has been pushed hard by the official Iranian Press TV. An opinion poll, conducted by the US daily news service World Tribune, shows that 70 percent of Syrians support President Bashar al-Assad, 20 percent say they do not support either side involved in the ongoing unrest in the country, and only 10 percent back the opposition. Big problem. Not only is the World Tribune a shadowy, obscure, web publication, but it clearly states it did not conduct a poll. The sources said no formal polling was taken in Syria, racked by two years of civil war in which 90,000 people were reported killed. They said the data came from a range of activists and independent organizations that were working in Syria, particularly in relief efforts. (emphasis added) The World Tribune report is nearly totally unsourced. It says "a Western source familiar with the data," but it headlines misleadingly says "NATO Data" It describes "data, relayed to NATO" and a "report to NATO," but gives no real reason to think that NATO took the report seriously. Should World Tribune be taken seriously? Look at their ties. The following World Tribune.com content partners have both contributed articles and columns and have helped alert the worldwide web to its exclusive reports: DrudgeReport.com Breitbart.com NewsMax.com WorldNetDaily.com Middle East Newsline GertzFile.com
The Washington Times Hoover Institution Geostrategy-Direct.com Hudson Institute East-Asia-Intel.com Int. Strat. Studies Assoc.
Moreover, as recently as July 2013, World Tribune reported that "Forensic findings on Obamas birth certificate: A 100 percent forgery, no doubt about it." A crazy, birther site isn't one that should believed by anyone, particularly by anyone on the left.
"If you say that this poll covers people from 18 countries, then that's fine. But you need to be very careful when you interpret the findings. "It is not good to say that 55% of Syrians, for example, think that Assad should stay when only 97 people were asked that question."
So, when we finally get to a poll that has some, limited validity, support for Assad is about half of the claimed 70 percent.