ANOTHER LIE FROM MURDOCH

There's a baldfaced lie in the New York Post about the latest New York Times poll on Iraq:

... there's been a ... startling drop in those who say the war is going badly, from 45 percent to 35 percent. The number of those who say the war effort is going well is up by about a quarter, from 23 percent to 29 percent.

Back in May, in other words, twice as many Americans thought the war was going badly as thought it was going well. Now the numbers are only a few points apart.

Absolutely wrong. In the Times poll (PDF), 35 percent say the war is going "very badly" -- but an additional 31 percent say it's going "somewhat badly."

Here are the numbers for the May poll and the current poll:

May: very well 2%, somewhat well 21%, somewhat badly 29%, very badly 47%
Now: very well 3%, somewhat well 29%, somewhat badly 31%, very badly 35%

So 66% think the war is going badly now, while 32% think it's going well.

That's more than 2 to 1 against. The numbers are not "only a few points apart."

The right desperately wants to change the current perception that the public hates the war -- and clearly the right isn't going to let the facts gets in the way.

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(The Post, by the way, compounds the error by mixing up the results of the previous Times poll, conducted earlier this month, and the poll conducted in May. A charitable person would say that all this is simple human error. But a big newspaper is supposed to verify facts. And the "facts" the Post published were clearly too good to verify.)