Schiavo hypocrisy watch

Brad Friedman has noted a truly glorious moment for hypocrisy fans. On CBS News Radio,

a spokesman from the Schiavo camp was quoted as saying something along the lines "We're so pleased that the broad majority of the American people have really pulled together to get behind the case for Terry Schiavo to save her life."

There was no alternate view presented in the story. Which is odd, given how we've been repeatedly told by the wingnuts what a bunch of leftie, pinko, commie, Bush-haters CBS News is.

Odder still: A Reuters poll indicates that a substantial majority of the American people strongly disapproves of congressional intervention in the Schiavo case.

Brad seems surprised that "left-wing" CBS should offer such a misleading appraisal of American opinion. But that network has done this sort of thing before.

I can recall one instance, about twelve years ago, when Dan Rather announced that "some people" thought that there was a conspiracy behind the JFK assassination. Not many days later, a poll emerged indicating that the number of Americans who believed in a conspiracy had reached the 90% mark. You can't get 90% of our citizens to agree that the earth is spherical, but the JFK controversy had attained that formidable level of agreement.

Of course, polls do not determine reality. (According to one survey, the majority of the American populace also believes that the Moon landings were faked.) But, as I think we must all agree, the figure of 90% made Rather's phrasing -- "some people" -- seem downright ludicrous. Worse than ludicrous: Intentionally deceptive.