Getting the Question Right III

I am dismayed by the fact that in this Washington Post ABC News Poll 51 % of respondents consider wiretapping of telephone calls and e-mails without court approval as an acceptable way for the federal government to investigate terrorism. This is dismal. It is appalling that an earlier poll which did not mention "without court approval" found only 64% support. This implies either that only 13% of Americans give a damn about the 4th amendment or that people don't pay attention to the question before answering (I am confident that the second explanation is correct).

I draw some hope from the fact that the WAPO-ABC question is still grossly misleading. The question above falsely describes the issue as "According to recent news reports, the National Security Agency has been investigating people suspected of involvement with terrorism by secretly listening in on telephone calls and reading e-mails between some people in the United States and other countries, without first getting court approval to do so."

This is not the issue at all. Listening in without first getting court approval is allowed by FISA provided that the attorney general askes for FISA couitr approval within 72 hours. The issue is not whether they can start listening before getting court approval but whether they can listen without ever informing the court. It is also relevant information that these acts, ordered by President Bush, are explicitely described as crimes.

The question in question was about whether respondents have been following the case closely or at all. Clearly the pollster has not been following the case closely. The poll contains a clearly false assertion about the content of the recent news stories. The accompanying article does not mention this at all. The Post has no problem with reporting false claims (in this case by their pollster).