Monday, March 14, 2022

Survey SAYS...

More than 6 in 10 Americans oppose legislation that would prohibit classroom lessons about sexual orientation or gender identity in elementary school, a new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds. [More]
Funny, they don't tell us what the questions were except for:
Questions 1 to 4 held for later release.
5. On another topic, would you support or oppose legislation that would prohibit classroom lessons about sexual orientation or gender identity in elementary school?
That's not very specific and says nothing about what kind of "lessons." Just give 'em carte blanche?

So it's not clear if respondents know about abuses and agendas that prompted fed-up parents to say "Enough!" Especially since search terms that you'd think would return plenty of examples instead overwhelmingly focus on how Christians are evil homophobic bullies. Any suggestion of indoctrination is met with Alinsky Rule 5 ridicule and the same "baseless" dismissal we see for evidence of 2020 election cheating or challenges to the official COVID narrative.

Speaking of parents, they don't tell us how many respondents are. Instead, if a small fraction of readers influenced by the headline read all the way down to the fine print at the bottom of the article, click on the "See the poll’s topline results and details on the methodology here" link and scroll to the second page, they'll find:
This poll is based on a nationally representative probability sample of 622 adults age 18 or older, with an oversample among LGBTQ+ respondents.
Sure sounds like "6 in 10 Americans" to me! What is it about media ethics in statistical reporting or lack thereof?

Note that the phrase "Don't say gay" appears four times on the article page, ignoring the fact that that's not what the Florida bill does or says. And finally, note that most reading this will not put together the connection between this "report" and the financial interests of ABC's owner.

Oh, and look: Yahoo! News picked it up. It looks like it's going viral. as a narrative talking point.

I've been demonstrably wrong about one thing: I generally end such posts by observing that in a few years anyone against this will be branded a hater. It won't be a few years.

1 comment:

Henry said...

Also, "elementary school" includes 6-8 grade (depending on the school), not Pre-K-3 as the bill covers.
They lie. It's the only way they can argue at all.