Austin Whitten
Another notoriously crooked polling question greeted Australians on March 30, compliments of the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age.
Both newspapers claimed a poll conducted by ACNeilson on March 26-28 showed that most Australians wanted troops to stay in Iraq "until the job was done".
In the Herald, we were not given the wording of the question. Only the phrase, "until the job is done". Nevertheless, Louise Dodson, the Herald's chief political writer, didn't hesitate to interpret the results for us, that it shows "strong public support for Australian troops to remain in Iraq" and that "61% favour the prime minister's position of keeping forces in Iraq until post-war reconstruction is completed".
"Keeping forces in Iraq until post-war reconstruction is completed" was not part of the question, however.
The Age report gives us more of a glimpse of the text of the question: "In the poll of 1403 people, 61% agreed with the statement that 'Australian troops should stay until the job is done', while 35% agreed that the troops 'should be brought home immediately'".
ABC morning news broadcasts repeated the poll results, also without giving the wording of the question. The ABC news website, however, was a little more honest, noting that "The poll question did not define what the 'job' was or how long it would take".
The next day, both newspapers printed letters critical of the poll. One to the Age described it as using a "highly prejudicial phrase ", adding, "of course it sounds bad to abandon anything before 'the job is done'". The writer pointed out that, to be credible, the question should simply have asked if troops should come home before Christamas or stay in Iraq beyond that date.
Nevertheless, that day the Herald carried four articles referring to the poll, without clarifying that there was any ambiguity in it, and its "results " remain fixed inmany people's minds.
What is the "job" to be done?
If the "job" had been defined as to support an illegal occupation driven by imperialist motives, then what would the poll results have been? Or even if the "job" had been defined as anything resembling reality?
Foreign minister Alexander Downer has attempted to define the "job" as protecting our diplomats in Iraq. Whatever happened to the policy of withdrawing Australians when they are in danger?
The reason for the loaded poll question, formulated by corporate media, is not hard to discern. It is in direct support of the Coalition government's agenda.
The same day that the poll was reported, PM John Howard attempted to put a motion to parliament, which according to ABC News, was "opposing artificial deadlines for the troop withdrawal and supporting the continued presence of the Australian forces in Iraq until their work is finished".
In her speech to the World Social Forum in Mumbai earlier this year, Arundhati Roy said: "It is important to understand that the corporate media doesn't just support the neoliberal project. It is the neoliberal project."
If ACNeilson had real scruples, it would have refused to ask such a meaningless question, which was so clearly designed to elicit the required response. All who were involved in such a shameful exercise deserve to be condemned.
[Austin Whitten is a member of the Socialist Alliance editorial board.]
From Green Left Weekly, April 7,
2004.
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