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02/11/2002 "Enron Executives met privately with members of the Bush administration to ask for the government's help to keep their company from going into bankruptcy. Do you think the Bush administration acted appropriately by not bailing out Enron, or do you think their lack of help for Enron was inappropriate and they should have acted to keep the company from bankruptcy?" Although the connection between the Bush administration and Enron was exaggerated, 65 percent responded "Appropriate", 14 percent responded "Inappropriate", and 21 percent responded, "Don't know". Now let's look at question #54: "Do you think the Bush administration did the right thing in keeping the bailout meetings with Enron executives private, or do you think they did the wrong thing by not making the bailout meetings with Enron executives public?" 51 percent responded "Wrong thing", 31 percent responded "Right thing". "What bailout meetings?!" is my response. We've all heard a lot about the phone calls that various Enron executives made to Bush cabinet members. We've also heard that their requests for assistance were rebuffed. Now the L.A. Times suggests that meetings took place where a bailout was a serious possibility! Perhaps the poll is referring to the non-existent bailout meetings that they wish they could hang on the Bush administration to bring him down to Clinton's level! And how is it that the Los Angeles Times found out about these super-secret private bailout meetings and buried them in questions #53 and #54 of a poll instead of squarely on top of the front page? In fact, having not received the hoped for responses to their questions, the pollsters kept these particular results out of their front page story on 02/05/2002. This poll analysis was provided on the L.A. Times web site: "Bush administration officials claim that Enron executives were sent packing when they sought a government bailout of their failing company, and defend their decision to keep the meetings private. Two out of three Americans said they thought that Bush administration officials acted appropriately by refusing to heed Enron's entreaties for government help, but more than half (51%) said the administration was wrong not to acknowledge the meetings publicly at the time. With no warning of the energy trader's collapse, many investors and employees whose retirement accounts were heavily invested in Enron stock, were wiped out." - Jill Darling Richardson, "Times Poll Assoc. Director" Certainly a public announcement of Enron's problems would have hastened it's collapse, and the collapse of the investors' retirement accounts along with it. And how smart would it have been to pump tax dollars into a company devoid of value? The only way polls can accurately mirror public opinion is if the questions are worded in such a way so as not to interject inaccurate information. The Los Angeles Times has been caught red-handed fiddling with the results. Here is the contact information: Los Angeles Times Readers' Representative Office Telephone message line: (877) 554-4000 Read more here: Complete L.A. Times poll in PDF form When you feel your personal media bias tolerance gauge rising into the red zone, don't throw stuff at the TV screen! Send your suggestion to outrage@fairpress.org! Each week, one hideous example of media bias will be selected for closer examination. Hmmmmmm . . .
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