Another perspective (non-truther) on the media and 9/11...

Did we not blog the article that came out in project censored??

This is totally different--I only read the first page so far...

http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/1/2/0/7/p...

Making Public Opinion: Polling, the Media, and the United States’ Response to 9/11

U.S. foreign policy fundamentally changed direction after September 11, 2001. Our
research studies public opinion as a key part of this shift in foreign policy, where the
United States began a war against terrorism, invaded Afghanistan, and conquered Iraq. We
study public opinion as a construct, however, rather than as either a resource or constraint
(as some scholars conceive of public opinion), or as a response to policymakers and the
media (as others view public opinion). We coded the content of thousands of foreign-
policy related poll questions being asked between September 11, 2001, and October 11,
2002, and descriptions of public opinion in the media over the same period.

Our research shows that the polls and the press (newsmagazines, the national press, and fifty randomly
selected US newspapers) manufacture a public that consists of a majority of persons,
persons who are inactive, present- and future-oriented, uncomplex, often insignificant, and
easily distracted. More, we find very strong correlations between the topic agenda and
framing of poll questions on public opinion, and the agenda and framing of news reports of
public opinion. We conclude that in the polling organizations cannot be viewed as separate
from the media firms for which they poll.

Prepared for presentation at the American Political Science Association annual meeting,
Chicago, August 28-Sept. 2, 2007.