The News & Observer‘s “Q” section ran a story today with this headline: “What do the Iraqis think?” It was written by McClatchy (The N&O‘s owner) Baghdad Bureau Chief Leila Fadel. The story was filed nearly two weeks ago with this headline: “4 years after invasion, many Iraqis look back with longing.”
In her story, Fadel interviews four people and comes to convey that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake. How did she choose these four people? Were they picked at random or did she know in advance they were disillusioned and secretly longed for the days of Saddam? And how did four people become “many” in the headline?
Meanwhile, an actual poll of more than four people paints a different picture. The headline on this story from Britain’s TimesOnline is: “Resilient Iraqis ask what civil war?” This story, published today and not two weeks ago, says:
The poll, the biggest since coalition troops entered Iraq on March 20, 2003, shows that by a majority of two to one, Iraqis prefer the current leadership to Saddam Hussein’s regime, regardless of the security crisis and a lack of public services.
If you ever wanted to know how a biased media can create fiction from truth, go no further than McClatchy’s Leila Fadel.
