Majority Views NSA Phone Tracking As Acceptable Anti-Terror Tactic -- PEW Research
Public Says Investigate Terrorism, Even If It Intrudes on Privacy
A majority of Americans – 56% – say the National Security Agency’s (NSA) program tracking the telephone records of millions of Americans is an acceptable way for the government to investigate terrorism, though a substantial minority – 41% – say it is unacceptable. And while the public is more evenly divided over the government’s monitoring of email and other online activities to prevent possible terrorism, these views are largely unchanged since 2002, shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center and The Washington Post, conducted June 6-9 among 1,004 adults, finds no indications that last week’s revelations of the government’s collection of phone records and internet data have altered fundamental public views about the tradeoff between investigating possible terrorism and protecting personal privacy.
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My Comment: According to the PEW poll support for the NSA's surveillance program divides along partisan lines. A clear majority of Democrats support President Obama NSA policy, but a clear majority opposed it when President Bush was in the White House. And while a majority of Republicans support President Obama and the NSA surveillance programs, this support is less than the overwhelming support that President Bush received when he was in power.
My only contention with this poll is that the current NSA surveillance program is vastly greater in scope than what was under President Bush .... a fact that is NOT explained in this poll.
2 comments:
These political polls tend to be worded carefully with the perception of how the public will see it, and manipulate it to that regard.
For example, the above graphic states "Investigate terrorist threats" and "Not intrude on privacy".
Two very broad terms. It's done in such a manner so that the need to go into specifics is avoided.
Of COURSE the majority of the public will want to tick that little box that says 'Investigate terrorist threats' and will most likely brush aside privacy concerns because it is incredibly vaque and not only that, the choices are offered in such a way that practically forces the mindset to choose the most practical - Why would anyone say no to investigation of terrorist threats?
So if anything, this article is moot - The poll is not a true representation of what the American public may truly feel about such issues. They never are anyhow.
I concur D. Plowman
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