CNN Never ceases to amaze me

[ThomWV]

If you were to go to the CNN website right now you'd find this poll question"

Do you think archaeologists have found the tomb of Cleopatra?
Yes
No

I looked at this question and thought to myself, "How the fuck would I know?" This is not a matter of what I think, it is a matter of fact. Either the tomb has been found or it has not and there is no way that what I think about it makes any difference what so ever. Not only does it not matter what I think but it would not matter what I and every other person who ever visited the CNN website thinks the right answer is; it either is or is not her tomb. So why does CNN ask such a question? And you know what makes this so ironic? It is that CNN, as a news network, should be the ones informing us as to if Cleopatra's tomb had been found - or not - and their poll simply points to their own failure to have effectively done so. Amazing, simply amazing.

[MrScorpio]

1. Welcome to a world where public opinion is more important than fact

It's pretty much the source of the problem when it comes to dealing with dumb asses like the tea beggers

[Deja Q]

2. How will they know it's her? Do they take off the bindings and look for an extra hole?

[TechBear_Seattle]

3. "Facts and reason be damned: we're a NEWS organization!"

That really does seem to be the state of American "journalism" these days.

[lame54]

4. "Do you THINK air is breathable?"...

There would still be plenty of NO votes

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. Well, that would depend on what part of the country you're in -

I haven't been able to breathe for weeks, with these pollen counts.

[bertman]

9. I hope the rain last night helped. It sure did in Chapel Hill.

:hi:

[Lex]

5. CNN confuses fact with opinion

following the lead of Fox Noise.

I see this kind of faulty poll question all the time. Even ones like "do you think global warming is real" is idiotic. I'm not a scientist and I don't have all the facts, much less the ability to analyze them.

Next poll: "Do you think 2 + 2 = 4?"

[spanone]

7. aside from being a stupid question, opinions in this case don't mean shit.

[PCIntern]

8. New CNN Poll:

Do you walk to school or do you carry your lunch?

[harun]

10. I think they are trying to gage just how effective their propaganda is

in terms of suggesting to people what they think.

The poll caught me off guard as well as a "what the hell is this?".

Routinely on their site they will see a bunch of stories from AP dropping hints of a story and they want to see what conclusions people make. Notice last election they didn't even try to hide it. You saw people watching speeches in groups with meters where they would select if they liked what was being talked about or not. All part of the same project.

[jobendorfer]

11. A trip in the way-back machine

I used to hike up to the rim of Mt. Saint Helens on a fairly regular basis ( it's a great way to stay in shape for climbing. )
Now, to do this, you had to get a permit before you went and slogged up 4800 feet of scree and bolder piles.
This meant stopping in a little town called Cougar, about 12 miles from the mountain, at a diner called Jack's.
And so I got to know the people at Jack's a little bit.

There was a lady that worked the counter there who told me about the lead up to the infamous eruption of 1980 (that drastically changed the shape of the mountain, caused huge mudflows, flattened forests, etc.) News crews descended upon the area. She told me that for a while, it seemed like a news team was stopping at the diner every day. They all wanted to know, "When do think the volcano is going to erupt?"

Now, this lady -- telling me this story years later -- would shake her head and say, "Why are you asking me? I'm a waitress for God's sake. I don't know anything. Now. There's two thousand vulcanologists crawling all over the mountain, and one them *might actually know something*. Why don't you ask one of them?" This of course was completely lost on the news crews. Finally, after being asked "When do you think it's going to blow?" for the thousandth time, she snapped.

"All right. It's going to blow tonight. How do I know? Well, this morning, I saw a half dozen sasquatches walking down the highway, and they were all carrying suitcases. I figured they must know something."

Guess who made the evening news ...?

And the moral is, television news has been butt stupid for a long, long time.

J.