Iraq War - BBC Newsnight

There is a program on BBC2 talking aboout the war and it has polls etc.

Blair is doing quite well with the majority of people beliving the war was right albeit by a small precent.

Also Iraqi People seem to be the highest in favor of the war not surprising considing they are no longer under saddam

[punky]

I'm watching it now, its quite a suprise. The blog by that Iraqi was real nice to hear.

I must admit I thought the way things were going for the government it was going to take a miracle for Blair to get re-elected, but now...Who knows?

Pleasant as much as the results seem, we shouldn't take too much stock in 1 poll though. The graph of supporters vs opposers shows how fickle support and opposition is, and how quickly and drastically it can change.

[Theodoric]

Originally Posted by Damien

There is a program on BBC2 talking about the war and it has polls etc.

Blair is doing quite well with the majority of people beliving the war was right albeit by a small precent.

Also Iraqi People seem to be the highest in favor of the war not surprising considing they are no longer under saddam

I saw the first half, then gave up as it was just a rehash of previous government claims. I thought that it was going to be a programme about the run up to the war, but it was just another one of those where a selected audience asks questions of a government minister (Benn? God, my short term memory is failing fast) who cynically bats them all aside and reels off the party line. In this case it was:

a) We believed the evidence at the time and Parliament voted for the war.

b) We didn't need a second UN resolution as the existing ones were sufficient (and even if they weren't we could ignore the UN as, for example, we did over Kosovo).

c) No evidence yet of WMD, but some evidence of a programme.

d) Tony Blair is totally, utterly and completely trustworthy.

As I said, not worth the waste of electricity.

[Xaccers]

The fight for Baghdad was quite interesting on Channel 5
Showed how the stars and stripes going up on saddam's statue was mis-reported by the west's media.
You could see that the iraqi croud were not at all offended by it.

[punky]

Originally Posted by Theodoric

I saw the first half, then gave up as it was just a rehash of previous government claims. I thought that it was going to be a programme about the run up to the war, but it was just another one of those where a selected audience asks questions of a government minister (Benn? God, my short term memory is failing fast) who cynically bats them all aside and reels off the party line. In this case it was:

a) We believed the evidence at the time and Parliament voted for the war.

b) We didn't need a second UN resolution as the existing ones were sufficient (and even if they weren't we could ignore the UN as, for example, we did over Kosovo).

c) No evidence yet of WMD, but some evidence of a programme.

d) Tony Blair is totally, utterly and completely trustworthy.

As I said, not worth the waste of electricity.

Not at all. It is a shapshot of public opinion at this moment, which is far better than going back to the run up of the war and telling us the same things we already rememeber. There was actually very little audience participation, it is basically just displaying the results of a ICM poll. It seemed very balanced. Half the audience were pro, half against, and they had spokesmen on both sides (some US government official, and Harold Pinter)

Oh, and don't forget, this is what is regarded as from a left-wing media source (although the results are from an independent polling company). Given that it would be in their interests to play down results, or spin things in a more negative way, the true picture might be even more pro-war. I was suprised by the results but they are quite clear. We should bear in mind what I said above though. Next week, if the poll was re-done, it could quite concievably show the opposite result.

Actually the results that you see punky is not too much a surprise, It was been quite stedy all though even before the war the majority of people supported it. Also trust in the goverment has been quite higher for a long time.

The Danger is that the media is playing a lot of stuff up to sell papers, theres a lot of things that are surrposedly bad that when you stand back and look at the facts objectivly are actually quite good. NHS waiting times for example.

Bottom Line, Do not trust the media (The Inderpendent and the BBC are booth quite good though)

[Theodoric]

Originally Posted by punky

Not at all. It is a shapshot of public opinion at this moment, which is far better than going back to the run up of the war and telling us the same things we already rememeber. There was actually very little audience participation, it is basically just displaying the results of a ICM poll. It seemed very balanced. Half the audience were pro, half against, and they had spokesmen on both sides (some US government official, and Harold Pinter)

Oh, and don't forget, this is what is regarded as from a left-wing media source (although the results are from an independent polling company). Given that it would be in their interests to play down results, or spin things in a more negative way, the true picture might be even more pro-war. I was suprised by the results but they are quite clear. We should bear in mind what I said above though. Next week, if the poll was re-done, it could quite concievably show the opposite result.

They did mention Pinter and the pro-war US official at the beginning. That must have been in the second part after I switched off.

[sir_drinks_alot]

it was a toss up between a current affairs show
with People talking about a passed war or No Angels
a show with nice young ladys Which had this


there was really no competition as to Which show i was going to watch

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by sir_drinks_alot

it was a toss up between a current affairs show
with People talking about a passed war or No Angels
a show with nice young ladys Which had this


there was really no competition as to Which show i was going to watch

So you watched newsnight then?

[sir_drinks_alot]

Originally Posted by Xaccers

So you watched newsnight then?

hell no old men talking about war v young woman drassed
in nurse outfits the woman will win every time oh am so
buying the dvd whan it comes out (whan ever that is)

Newsnnight dont make DVDS

[BBKing]

The BBC isn't a left-wing media source. The Daily Mirror is a left-wing media source. Often a mistake made by the raving right and Rupert Murdoch, who mistake balance for bias.