FOXNews.Com Hides Unfavorable Poll Results About Bush And Iraq

A FOX News poll conducted October 10-11 shows some seriously bad news for President Bush: 49% think Bush intentionally misled the country about WMD's in Iraq (44% think he provided Americans with the best prewar intelligence); 66% think Republicans try to make the war in Iraq seem like it's going better than it really is; 73% think it's time Iraqis take on the burden of securing their own country and let the US troops start coming home; 41% think we should end involvement in Iraq, as opposed to 39% who think it should be continued. But you won't find any of that information on the FOX News poll homepage.

If you navigate to the home page of FOX News polls, right now there is a large picture of Mark Foley with the text: "The Foley Effect New FOX Poll: Few Americans say the congressional page scandal will affect their vote in the upcoming elections." Underneath the Foley photo, in much smaller text, is a link called "Today's Features: Divisions on Iraq New FOX Poll: Americans split on whether U.S. should continue involvement in Iraq

If you click through to the full feature article, the one linked with Foley's photo, the only information given by author Lawrence Shiman about Iraq is:

Voters continue to focus on Iraq, terrorism, and the economy as key issues for the upcoming election — 45 percent say the situation in Iraq is extremely important to their vote, while 39 percent say the same about terrorism and the economy.

Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say the situation in Iraq is extremely important to their vote by a 20-point margin. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to be motivated by the issue of terrorism by an 8-point margin.

You have to click to another page for "additional information on voter attitudes toward Iraq." Or, if you notice the small print on the left side of the home page, under the "related" banner and sandwiched in the middle of two other reports (FOX News typically puts bad news for Republicans between two other pieces of information where, presumably, they hope it will receive less notice), there's a link to an article FOX News euphemistically calls "Voters Divided on U.S. Involvement in Iraq."

But even when you click through to the "Iraq war" poll page, the bad news about Bush is buried. The lead two paragraphs say:

Voters are equally divided regarding whether the U.S. should continue or end its involvement in Iraq, with 41 percent saying the United States should end involvement and almost the same number (39 percent) saying the country should continue, according to the latest FOX News Poll.

It's not until the ninth paragraph that a reader finds out that most Americans think Bush misled the country about WMD's. Still, Shiman downplays the bad news for Bush:

Views are divided as to whether President Bush intentionally misled the American people about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq — almost half (49 percent) think the president intentionally misled the country, while 44 percent think the president gave the best prewar intelligence available.

The full poll results are here.