It wasn’t a poll.
It was an IQ test.
Charles Adler: Canadians are telling his firm that they think that it’s a good idea to negotiate with Afghanistan’s Taliban insurgents as a way to end the violence. this poll was conducted for CTV and the Globe&Mail and there was almost two to one support….
[…]
I know some people would object to the question, but let me ask the question anyways – does everyone know who the Taliban is? […] Were any of the people participating in this poll told that the Taliban have been known to chop people’s heads off?
Tim Wollstencroft, Strategic Counsel: That would be ..ah ah.. that would be provactive and would probably be viewed as a biased question.
CA: My guess is that it would be informative, you see my guess is that if Canadians knew that the Taliban engaged in this kind of thing, they would think they’re not the kinds of people who you can negotiate with.
TW: ah …that might be that these are tough guys, but in the end these people are going to have to be talked to or dealt with in a diplomatic manner.
CA: You’re saying you the pollster have decided that’s what ought to be done and then you ask the question, is that the point?
[…]
CA: Let me just ask you Tim, and forget the poll – what do you know about the Taliban?
TW:That’s not my job, my job is to get ah an accurate measure about whether people think that Canada should negotiate with the Taliban, yes or no.
CA: But what do you say to someone who says, “you know what, been down there and I know what the Taliban is all about and the question is preposterous”.
TW: Ah.. well it’s not preposterous …
Listen to the whole thing.
Via Damnation – “Why, pray tell, would the Globe and Mail, which also sponsored the poll, and CTV hire a certain Mr Donolo (link via Milnet.ca) if they are seeking unbiased information?”
From 1993 to 1999, Peter served as Director of Communications in the Prime Minister’s Office and chief communications strategist for Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his government. In that position, Peter established a strong record in developing successful communications strategies for the most important government initiatives and most contentious political and public policy issues of the past decade. In the process, he established a strong personal reputation in one of the most intense and high-pressured jobs of its kind.
Following his tenure in the PMO, Peter served for two years as Canadian Consul General to Milan…
Why, indeed.
(Editor’s note – the Corus audio version is difficult to access on some computers. If someone saves this gem to Youtube, do let me know. This “unbiased” pollster is deserving of much wider public mocke attention .)
Update – you can get a podcast at Step To The Right (where there are weekly podcasts on recent Canadian political events.)
UPdate 2 Ladies and Gentlemen – we have Youtube!
The Taliban is what was done by the CRTC to restrict US talivision commercials during the Superbowl when shown on CTV
I got lucky this year and got the American feed on HD. Hope they don’t F it up next year. What a difference.
“..in the end these people are going to have to be talked to or dealt with in a diplomatic manner.”
Like the Nazi’s I presume?
This is another “Liberal” poll done by a “Liberal” pollster to manipulate the agenda reported by a “Liberal” supportive press.
Harper’s off the agenda, Harpers off the map on what’s on Canadians minds, Harpers not in tune with the environment, Harper is losing it, BLAH BLA H BLAH BLAH BLAH. Look at the polls – MY GOD HE”S NOT IN TUNE!!!!
Liberal’s trying to convince Canadians with bogus polls pumped through a Liberal friendly press that Harper is not doing what he said he would: just like they did when they were in power, they used polling to convince Canadians they did actually do something for the country instead of for themselves when in fact they did nothing.
Conservative’s also have to relax – this is a minority government – there is compromise. They have to see the goading by the press corps for what it is – upset the Conservative base to help their Liberals fracture Harper support.
That’s Adler at his very best, this country would be in better shape if more journalists called “bullshit” on the LPC/left’s bread-and-butter: the polling of the uninformed and the led, and the use of these polls to undercut the mission.
Whoever controls the media determines which parties rise and fall, or stall, in the polls. Certain media and their associated polling companies give uninformed people cues about what Canadians “say” or “are saying.” The results get widely reported; credulous people believe that they are receiving straightforward information on how Canadians think; this becomes a default view, and increasingly becomes the answer in further polls; this grants CTV/CBC even more license to point out non-stop, as if in professional obligation, how Canadians are increasingly opposed to the policies of the Conservatives; the Conservatives go down in the polls.
Strange timing: last night I answered a Leger phone poll — a dog’s breakfast of questions about Hepatitus B and C, the Alberta Motor Association, etc., All the questions were straightforward, and, uhh, in the form of questions.
Except, remarkably, the questions on “the environment” which were for some reason prefaced with a strong statement along the lines of “Increasingly, Albertans are expressing a growing concern about the environment”. Then I was asked a series of questions about how concerned I was about the environment.
As I was listening to this blatant leading questioning, it was clear that many people would go along with the blatantly leading statement, with it’s suggested approach to answers, because they don’t want to seem ignorant or go against the tide.
When I answered a specific question on whether I thought the environment would be more of an issue in Alberta in a year, I said no, it wouldn’t, because in my opinion man-made global warming is well on its way to beeing exposed as a sham.
The questioner audibly cleared her throat, and suddenly became tangibly imperious in her tone, sort of a “oh, that’s the kind of attitude I’m dealing with here; I’ve heard about people like you”, and henceforth she sounded slightly sarcastic, like she was talking to a child who needs guidance, but is beyond help.
(BTW, Just curious, did any other commenters take the same poll?)
The sad thing is, polling, often by news organizations, is what increasingly drives the news coverage, even if they don’t mention the polls. What the polls tell them is what they can get away with, what sort of back-up they have when they are making up “the news”.
Last night, on the National. Mansbridge: “Tonight: The Prime Minister makes an unannounced visit to Afghanistan. What did President KARzai tell him about the treatment of Afghan detaiNEES?”
Later, introducing Paul Hunter’s report, MB began: “Harper’s second visit to Afghanistan follows a difficult few months for his government over the mission — Widespread criticism for how it handled allegations of Afgan detainee abuse; more Canadian soldiers killed; and declining support for the mission at home…”
Broadcast nationally; take a poll to verify that your approach is working; work with Liberal insiders; reiterate that which pleases your tribal masters; etc. etc. etc. DO NOT disseminate information on the behaviour of the Taliban — it might affect the next poll, and therefore coverage, etc., which might cause the Liberals to lose their hard-won advantage in coverage…
EBD, exactly. The Canadian media has taken on a very dangerous life of its own.
Polling in Canada only tracks the level of effectiveness of the latest wave of medial brainwashing on the general public.
It is a litmus test to see if comon reason and understanding can be folded to the whim of selective information desemination.
It is the biased selective release of infomation by Canada’s partisan-coopted corporate media whaich has rendered Canadinas among the least informed population in the free world.
Polling in Canada only tracks the level of effectiveness of the latest wave of medial brainwashing on the general public.
It is a litmus test to see if comon reason and understanding can be folded to the whim of selective information desemination.
It is the biased selective release of infomation by Canada’s partisan-coopted corporate media whaich has rendered Canadinas among the least informed population in the free world.
“No disrespect intended to Manitobans, but wasn’t the election a foregone conclusion?”
Posted by: syncrodox at May 23, 2007 9:30 PM
Syncro,
The result, another four dipper years, was, as you say, a foregone conclusion.
Nevertheless, I was still extremely dismayed to see how much that virus has spread into parts of suburban Winnipeg that seemed immune to it for years. There are now less than a handful of city seats that are not represented by dippers. The country folk still retain their common sense, for the most part, but increasing urban concentration seems to be robbing the Manitoba electorate of that ever rarer commodity.
I was previously thinking that Prairie cities retained a degree of resilience that had disappeared in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, but it looks like you can now only say that about Edmonton and Calgary.
Very disappointing.
Imagine if it were 1942 – and a pollster asked Canadians “Should we negotiate with the Nazis?” – and upon asked whether Canadians polled knew that the Nazis rounded up people, put them into concentration camps, shot them, gassed them – and the pollster replied, “Of course not! That would be BIASED!”
Enough said.