“Do you think the U.S. should have found the Benghazi attack suspect sooner?” – viewership poll, June 17, 2014, KHOG.

I find the entire concept of asking folks at home what they think of news stories somewhat silly, especially as you have no idea how well informed the respondents might be, or if they are just reacting out of a liberal/conservative bias. .

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I find them especially silly coming from a TV “news” program which only days before breathlessly asked folks if they thought a particular chicken restaurant would make it in Northwest Arkansas.

And yes, Ultramodern Reader, folks seemed to respond to that poll with as much passion as the one dealing with Benghazi.

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Yeah, and about those results? The breathless anchor informed the folks at home that over 80 percent of those responding thought that, yes, the Obama administration should indeed have brought this fellow to justice sooner.

Because we know all the facts, you know.

But looking over the station’s Facebook page, where partisan arguing has broken out over the issue, those figures seem to actually translate out as:

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34 say yes, and 10 folks don’t want to be in the Rush To Judgment mob.

My math isn’t so great, so I’ll accept that 34 translates as around 80 something percent.

But wouldn’t it have been more honest if the anchor had simply said, “So far, 34 of you think that . . .”

I watch the news so that I can find out what is going on in the world, not to have this sort of nonsense foisted off on me.

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KFSM . . . assuming viewers have ESP

Looking over what KFSM out of Fort Smith had to offer viwers yesterday, though, there came yet another of their bits of comedy in their health reports:

“New numbers show that 30 million people in the U.S. have diabetes. But there are ways to prevent and slow down the growth of the disease. A new national study followed high risk patients for 15 years, and found that prevention techniques actually work.”

Okay . . . which ones? It is sort of like somebody at the station saw the title on a report and just put that out for the anchor to read, rather than taking the time to grab the entire story. Or do they assume that viewers have ESP, and are able to figure out the rest of the story, without even being told?

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It wasn’t quite as bad as the study they reported on some time back about many cancer survivors losing their jobs after a few years.

The “Why” part of Who, What, When, Where and Why was missing from the report, but the perky anchor simply went on the next item, as if she did not even notice the huge gap in the story herself.

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Not to be outdone, we have KNWA . . .

I didn’t watch KNWA yesterday, but I wonder if anyone else has noticed that at 5:30, this station, an NBC affiliate, often urges folks to switch the channel and watch Fox News Edge on their “sister station.”

Fox News Edge, which they promote heavily, also comes on at nine o’clock, during NBC prime time.

If there is anyone at the helm of NBC affiliate KNWA, perhaps it is time someone threw a bucket of ice cold water on them to wake them up.

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Quote of the Day

My impression is that if I try to find the meaning of my own experience it leads me, nearly always, in directions regarded as absurd. – Carl R. Rogers

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rsdrake@cox.net

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