April 18, 2007

NYT's alleges we are more pro-war and pro-Bush than any other age group

Posted by Kristina Rizga at 11:21AM

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The New York Times is running a bold front-page headline today, stating that "younger people are more supportive of the war and the president than any other age group."

How did they come up with such a bold, sweeping conclusion? One, isolated poll.

How can an editor of "news surveys" at NYT's make such potentially damaging conclusions based on one isolated, questionable poll? And why, in the age of internet, can't newspaper editors provide at least one link to socially significant surveys they cite? Didn't the popularity of blogs and hyperlinking prove that readers want to use their critical skills to see how conclusions are made and based on what facts?

Since I've read many surveys showing contrary data, I wanted to find out about the methodology of this survey. All I found was one sentence stating that "The nationwide telephone poll was conducted March 7-11 with 1,362 adults."

Who knows what number of these adults were 18- to 29-year olds. Were these respondents stratified to ensure that they accurately represent the total US population in gender, age, ethnic, and regional distribution?

Such lousy journalism contributes to nothing, but continued stereotyping of young people as an "apathetic" generation despite the fact that in the last midterm elections, young people came out to the polls in record numbers inspired by their disapproval of the current administration and its policies. Not to mention that there are countless polls that show the majority of young people continue to oppose the war in Iraq.

I guess we still have a lot of work to do here at WireTap until the mainstream media and major parties finally catch up.