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National Poll Shows Nothing More Than The People Likely To Be Angered By The FBI’s Raid On Trump’s Home Were Angered By It

from the BREAKING:-TRUMP-FANS-LIKE-FBI-EVEN-LESS dept

Let’s get this out of the way immediately: the FBI is not a trustworthy agency. It has a long history of civil rights abuses, national security power abuses, and has spent more than four years refusing to be honest about the effect device encryption has on investigations.

But to pretend the recent raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home caused an across-the-board drop in trust in the agency is to willingly ignore the data. That’s what Casey Harper appears to be doing in his article for The Center Square, which is entitled “Poll: Mar-A-Lago raid has eroded trust in the agency.”

Now, it may be that Harper doesn’t write his own headlines. But he did write this:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation raid on former President Donald Trump has eroded Americans’ trust in the agency, according to a new poll.

Rasmussen Reports released the data, which showed that 44% of surveyed Americans say the raid made them trust the federal law enforcement agency less.

This is partially Rasmussen’s fault. Its own post on its poll has this ridiculous headline:

‘Biden’s Gestapo’? Trump Raid Hurts Voter Trust in FBI

And says this in the body of the post:

A new national telephone and online survey by Rasmussen Reports finds that 44% of Likely U.S. voters say the FBI raid on Trump’s Florida home made them trust the FBI less, compared to 29% who say it made them trust the bureau more. Twenty-three percent (23%) say the Trump raid did not make much difference in their trust of the FBI.

But it really did nothing of the sort. The poll data actually show nothing more than the amplification of echoes in chambers built specifically for the purpose of amplifying echoes.

The data say completely unsurprising things, like the fact that people prone to be pissed off about the FBI’s raid of Trump’s home are now angry at the FBI. The largest percentage of poll respondents who have a very unfavorable impression of the FBI following the raid are white, male Republicans above the age of 40 — more than double any other demographic.

And that trend holds, again unsurprisingly, when Rasmussen asked specifically about the Mar-a-Lago raid:

Non-unexpectedly, the same sort of responses were given to Rasmussen’s much more loaded question: “There is a group of ‘politicized thugs at the top of the FBI who are using the FBI… as Joe Biden’s personal Gestapo.”

One would think a national pollster might avoid directly quoting long-time political operative/Trump pardon recipient Roger Stone while conducting a poll, but here we are. Rasmussen does not note how many times poll respondents uttered the phrase “Let’s go, Brandon!” during these interactions.

This poll doesn’t show anything anyone could have assumed following the search of Trump’s house. Democrats trust the FBI just a bit more than they already did. Republicans got even angrier at an agency they really haven’t cared for since then-FBI Director James Comey rebuffed Trump’s demands for total fealty. And Comey was the one who won over Trump fans — at least momentarily — by publicly reopening the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server just days before the 2016 election.

But those whose love and hate of the FBI are closely tied to their political allegiances are dupes falling victim to short cons. The long con is the agency itself, which may not be the amoral entity it was under J. Edgar Hoover, but still has a long way to go before anyone should consider it inherently trustworthy.

Filed Under: donald trump, fbi, polls, trustworthy
Companies: rasmussen

Misleading Rasmussen Poll Helps Prop Up Bogus Net Neutrality Partisan Divide

from the damn-lies-and-statistics dept

Mon, Nov 24th 2014 07:42am - Karl Bode

As we noted last week, the idea that net neutrality is a strictly partisan issue is a dated one, with several new studies indicating that support for net neutrality (and support for meaningful net neutrality rules) is increasingly common among members of all parties. As we’ve also noted several times, most people, when you sit them down and talk to them, understand that letting lumbering telecom duopolists write the laws, corner the market, and erect obnoxious new and arbitrary tolls, simply isn’t a very bright idea or conducive to healthy technology markets.

While a number of polls and surveys were busy deconstructing the myth of the partisan neutrality feud last week, Rasmussen Reports was busy trying to perpetuate it. The firm recently issued a new poll that breathlessly proclaimed that 61% of the public opposed net neutrality rules, while also insisting that people generally really like their cable and broadband providers:

“Most Americans have opposed increased government regulation of the Internet since December 2010 when some members of the FCC began pushing ?net neutrality? efforts to stop some companies from offering higher downloading speeds to preferred customers. Seventy-six percent (76%) of Americans who regularly go online rate the quality of their Internet service as good or excellent. Only five percent (5%) consider their service poor. Americans remain suspicious of the motives of those who want government regulation of the Internet. Sixty-eight percent (68%) are concerned that if the FCC does gain regulatory control over the Internet, it will lead to government efforts to control online content or promote a political agenda, with 44% who are Very Concerned.”

Of course if you actually bother to investigate the questions asked of survey participants, you’ll notice this amusing little ditty:

“Should the Internet remain “open” without regulation and censorship or should the Federal Communications Commission regulate the Internet like it does radio and television?”

Note that in this case the question tells the poll taker the Internet is currently “open” and that regulation will automatically change this. Amusingly, the phrase “and censorship” is just kind of thrown in there casually, as if nobody reading the poll questions could possibly ferret out that Rasmussen is being misleading. It’s effectively asking survey recipients: “Do you like government meddling — that involves punching you squarely in the face?”

The Rasmussen poll wording also goes on to more subtly rattle ye olde “all regulation is automatically evil” saber, strongly implying that real competition would be immeasurably better than consumer protections. That’s partially true — we’ve obviously argued more than a few times that net neutrality violations are just the symptom of the lack of competition disease. That said, Rasmussen intentionally ignores (or doesn’t actually understand) that Title II with forbearance is the best option available in the face of an immensely powerful broadband duopoly (or monopoly) that’s simply not getting fixed anytime soon.

Obviously this isn’t the first time Rasmussen has brought loaded questions to play. The firm’s reputation as a reliable pollster took a mammoth hit back in 2010 for repeatedly being significantly off on projections, and having what Nate Silver and Five-Thirty-Eight at the time complained was “cavalier attitude toward polling convention,” something Silver stated would “need to be refined” if the pollster was to ever be taken seriously again. Judging from their net neutrality poll, those necessary improvements may not be coming anytime soon.

That said, do you support net neutrality…when it involves getting kicked in the groin?

Filed Under: democrats, net neutrality, partisan, polls, republicans
Companies: rasmussen

Majority Of Americans Okay With NSA Dragnet… Or, Wait, Not Okay With It; Depending On How You Ask

from the i'm-not-angry;-i'm-disappointed dept

Results of a recent survey have just been released by the Pew Research Center and its discoveries are a bit surprising and a bit disappointing. After seeing a large surge in the percentage of people who were unwilling to sacrifice more civil liberties to fight terrorism (last month’s post-Boston Bombing TIME/CNN poll), today’s poll release swings back in the other direction. According to Pew’s poll, a majority of Americans think the NSA’s phone records dragnet is perfectly fine in the context of fighting terrorism.

A majority of Americans – 56% – say the National Security Agency’s (NSA) program tracking the telephone records of millions of Americans is an acceptable way for the government to investigate terrorism, though a substantial minority – 41% – say it is unacceptable. And while the public is more evenly divided over the government’s monitoring of email and other online activities to prevent possible terrorism, these views are largely unchanged since 2002, shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Currently 62% say it is more important for the federal government to investigate possible terrorist threats, even if that intrudes on personal privacy. Just 34% say it is more important for the government not to intrude on personal privacy, even if that limits its ability to investigate possible terrorist threats.

While it’s tempting to believe a large number of Americans simply haven’t been paying attention for the last 11 years, the more probable explanation for the consistent support of government monitoring is the hypocrisy of partisan politics. Republicans and Democrats have shown their support of government surveillance is directly tied to whoever’s currently in the White House.

Republicans and Democrats have had very different views of the two operations. Today, only about half of Republicans (52%) say it is acceptable for the NSA to obtain court orders to track phone call records of millions of Americans to investigate terrorism. In January 2006, fully 75% of Republicans said it was acceptable for the NSA to investigate suspected terrorists by listing in on phone calls and reading emails without court approval.

Democrats now view the NSA’s phone surveillance as acceptable by 64% to 34%. In January 2006, by a similar margin (61% to 36%), Democrats said it was unacceptable for the NSA to scrutinize phone calls and emails of suspected terrorists.

There, in bold black and white, is one of the most damning indictments of the two party system and its attendant illusion of choice. Two different parties in control. Same outcome. The only thing that changes is the party affiliation of the indignant. Oddly, “Independents” have increased their support of surveillance programs over the same period, a stat that serves as a reminder that it’s not just libertarians self-identifying as independent.

On a slightly more positive note, Americans are more protective of their internet usage, with a slight majority (52%) saying the government should not be allowed to monitor email and “other internet activities” in order to track down terrorists. Sadly, this too can probably be chalked up to a change in presidents, with Republicans jumping 13% in their disapproval from 2006 to 2013 and Democrats dropping their disapproval 8% over the same period.

But perhaps the largest factor is the phrasing of the questions. A Rasmussen poll conducted during the same period came to nearly the completely opposite conclusion.

Most voters oppose the U.S. government’s secret collection of the phone records of millions of Americans and think the feds are spying too much on U.S. citizens these days. Just 26% of Likely U.S. Voters favor the government’s secret collecting of these phone records for national security purposes regardless of whether there is any suspicion of wrongdoing. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 59% are opposed to the practice.

It appears as though certain words — like “terrorism” — tend to trigger more supportive answers.

Here’s the question asked by Pew Research:

As you may know, it has been reported that the National Security Agency has been getting secret court orders to track telephone call records of MILLIONS of Americans in an effort to investigate terrorism. Would you consider this access to telephone call records an acceptable or unacceptable way for the federal government to investigate terrorism?

Here’s Rasmussen’s version:

The federal government has been secretly collecting the phone records of millions of Americans for national security purposes regardless of whether there is any suspicion of wrongdoing. Do you favor or oppose the government’s secret collecting of these phone records?

Both questions have their own tilt. Pew uses the word “terrorism,” which tends to provoke stronger emotional responses. It also gives the NSA’s action an overarching purpose where Rasmussen’s wording places more emphasis on secrecy and the lack of reasonable suspicion inherent in the NSA’s data harvesting. Rasmussen skews things even further in other questions, including this one, which presents only one “correct” answer (logically).

Is the U.S. government spying too much on Americans these days, not enough or is the level of spying about right?

Where does the public’s opinion actually lie? It’s tough to say as both polls use language which could skew results. A certain percentage of Americans are willing to accept rights erosion in exchange for fighting terrorism. Legislators still exploit this angle to push through questionable bills and excuse existing policies. Rasmussen’s question exchanges “terrorism” for “national security,” a term that doesn’t have nearly the same emotional impact. Two very different outcomes to ostensibly the same question.

Pew’s more thorough poll does alert us to the fact that a majority of the population is either ambivalent to the NSA’s actions — or completely unaware. Only 27% of respondents claim to be following the story closely, with those polling as opposed to the NSA’s data harvesting holding a slight lead over those who support these efforts. This low level of engagement isn’t uncommon and has helped to ensure that questionable Bush-era policies remain in place years down the road, in some cases being expanded by the current administration. Hopefully, this latest round of leaks will grab the attention of more of the population and bring with it some much-needed transparency and change within the system.

Filed Under: nsa, nsa surveillance, polls, public opinion
Companies: pew research center, rasmussen