the recording came on and i got to hear dave rant about the "liberal media" that tried to derail the last election by leaking exit polls. dave then claimed that his own film celsius 41.11 is "widely credited with putting george bush over the top." (funny, because in most places the film bombed within the week after its release date). dave's recording concluded with a pitch trying to sell me a dvd of the film.
the recorded ended and we cut back to my original pollster. he asked me if i heard and understood dave's message. i said i did. then he asked me the polling question (ready for it?):
"Do you think the liberal media was wrong to leak its anti-bush exit polls on election day?""i don't think the media leaked it" i answered.* "it's a yes or no question" my pollster said helpfully. "well, i disagree with the premise of the question."
my questioner ended up being more of a talker than i originally expected. he asked me what i thought about how the liberal media is so hard on the president and i replied that this has been the most compliant, unquestioning media in my memory. "bush gets a total pass from the media." "you think so?" my pollster asked, "what about the fake memo about bush's national service." "look, if you are a newscaster and a source gives you a copy of a memo that seems to show that the president lied about his military service, what are you supposed to do? obviously, it's a story and obviously you gotta run it. that's the role of the media. when it turned out that the memo was a fake, CBS originally stood by their story. but later, when it became clear the story was false, they retracted it. where is the bias? did fox news ever retract it's stories about john kerry's service when navy records proved them to be wrong?" "um, i guess that's true" said my pollster friend.
i was surpised by the admission. i thought he would stay more on-script. i was on a roll. i was having a kind of socrates moment.** but he didn't give up.
"what about how the media is trying to turn iraq into vietnam?" "oh, it's turning into vietnam quite nicely on its own." i replied and then continued: "why is it a bad thing for iraq to be like vietnam? vietnam was a quagmire. americans were sent into war under the false pretense that vietnam posed some kind of threat to the u.s. american soldiers died for no good reason and we got stuck there. and then our country spent years with soldiers needlessly dying trying to find a way to leave. if iraq turns into vietnam, it has nothing to do with the media and everything to do with the president's decision to go there in the first place and his administration's horrible lack of planning once we went. and if iraq turns into vietnam, doesn't the media have the responsibility to tell us? or would you rather that they hide that fact from the american people?" "i get what you're saying" he said quietly.
"did you really vote for bush?" he asked. "no way" i said. "you voted democrat?" "yes" "then how did you get on my list?" "that's what i wanted to ask you." pause. "when did you figure out i didn't support bush?" i asked him. "pretty much when you started talking."
"why didn't you tell me you were a democrat at the beginning, when i said it was a poll of bush supporters?" he asked. "i wanted to hear what you had to say." my pollster started to laugh. "look, i'm sorry to rant at you like that. i realize this is just your job." "that's okay," he said, "it's your opinion. this is an opinion poll." "i'm not buying your video," i added. "i figured." he said. then he thanked me for my time and hung up.
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*for the record i have no idea who leaked the exit polling data on election day. in all honesty it could have been "the media", but only because "the media" is such an amorphous label it could potentially cover just about anyone. including me typing here now. i just wanted to avoid the question to i contested the premise of what he was asking. it's one of those shyster-style tricks.
**e.g. "yes socrates" "of course, socrates" "by zeus you're right, socrates!"
