Screamingly Obvious Media Bias

The Deseret News tries its hand at manufacturing consent.

According to a poll taken this past week, Utahns definitely do not want a tax cut. No siree, not at all. If the poll numbers are to be believed, "nearly half" of all Utahns -- some 48% -- want the Legislature to spend all of Utah's billion-dollar budget surplus on the poor, starvin' teachers.

Well that's nice, but the graphic that accompanies the story shows that in response to the question "How much of a tax cut, if any, do you favor?", some 57% percent say they want tax cuts ranging between $40 million and $230 million. Only 36% said they don't want any type of tax cut and to spend the money on teachers.

The last time I took a statistics class, 57% is a solid majority. And if 57% of Utahns want a tax cut, that means no greater than 43% would oppose such a cut, not 48%. Either the poll numbers have been misreported by the Great, Wise and All-Seeing Editors of the Deseret News, or this is a bad attempt to deliberately distort the issue.

Neither answer would surprise me, frankly.