Sunday, October 01, 2006

Consumer Report: Do You Think The Government Should Stop Beating It’s Wife?

Contains recycled material previously posted on olvlzl as well as virgin verbiage.

Here is last Wednesday’s CNN phony insta-poll question:

Should governments regulate whether restaurants cook with artificial trans fatty acids?
Created: Wednesday, September 27, 2006, at 06:28:07 EDT

Here is the CNN phony insta-poll question of nine days before:

Have you changed your eating habits because of the E. coli outbreak linked to fresh spinach?
Created: Monday, September 18, 2006, at 12:08:19 EDT

Notice that though both questions deal with food safety there are some important differences in the questions and one interesting similarity. The trans-fat question asks if the mean, overbearing government should regulate restaurants cooking with "artificial trans fatty acids". The question about spinach asks YOU if YOU have changed YOUR eating habits to protect your own health.

Suspecting that most people, when they think of "restaurants" aren't thinking of ones that might kill them but ones they like, I wonder if just using the word might prejudice the results. People don't tend to go places they don't like. But if I start down that road who knows where it will end. Ah, the problems you get into when you enter into "opinion".

Not that in either case does CNN suggest that, perhaps, an industry that may endanger your health or your life has some responsibility to insure your safety. They're only selling you stuff to put in your mouths, after all. And notice which question mentions a specific health risk associated with the product, it's spinach, not "artificial trans fatty acids" something that has absolutely no known health benefits as a part of an imbalanced diet. If they mentioned the health risks by name in the question, I'm 100% certain that the phony lard wouldn't be nearly as popular as it seems with the CNNits. I'm guessing that unlike the trans-fat chain restaurant industry, the fresh spinach industry doesn't do much advertising on CNN.

There are questions that might shed some light on the dismal situation. Do you think that CNN would have ever asked, "Should chain restaurants stop using trans-fats to protect the health of their customers?" Or, "Should the FDA require the food industry to apply safety standards that effectively prevent the outbreak of potentially fatal E. coli infections?" I'm betting that you'd see the second before you ever saw them ask the first.

Despite the absurd vagary of this kind of junk news, there are some things that are entirely certain about it. The clearest is that these phony polls are not "conducted" to find out anything about the general population. The methods are entirely fraudulent, they couldn't tell you much except how successfully CNN has propagandized their audience share. And that would only show you the segment of their audience dumb enough to participate in these phony surveys. The questions are phrased to yield the result they want, they play their suckers like a scratch ticket with a guaranteed payout.

This is all garbage, entirely worthless fluff that gives even the entirely ignorant the false notion that what they mistakenly call their opinion is important. It does nothing to inform anyone about anything but validates their ignorance. But, since they're going to keep doing this sewer level "journalism" we might as well have a little fun with it. Look at these other actual "Quick Vote" questions.

- Would you donate your body to medical science?

Why? So they could study the arterial effects of trans-fat consumption at your sponsors' regulation-free restaurants?

- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is disputing former President Bill Clinton's account of who did more to pursue Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Which administration do you hold accountable?

What if they pointed out that Bill Clinton was disputing the Bush II regime's account? Do you think that phrasing could skew the answer a different way. This way it looks like that infamous sex pervert going after the Princess Condi. Oh, my stars, will Obi Wan get there in time?

- Do you believe it is right for the Thai military to investigate the assets of ousted leader Thaksin Shinawatra?

Now this one takes the cake. What do you think the chances are that two days from the story going old that five percent of CNN's viewers would have any idea what the hell this was about? I wonder what would happen if CNN did a quick poll next week that asked if the goverment should regulate whether restaurants served Thaksin Shinawatra. I'm betting that an impressive percentage of their audience would agree with the statement, "No government bureaucrats' gonna keep me from getting my daily minimal requirement of Texan Shiny Water,". They'll have to pry the bottle outta my cold stiff hands first.”