Headlines by Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch's London Times has a couple of misleading headlines describing the results of an ORB poll of Iraqis.

• Iraqis: life is getting better
• Resilient Iraqis ask what civil war?

Now as one might expect the Murdoch paper put the old FOX spin on the poll results and the Bush cultists are all over it. Well Cernig at NewsHog took a look at the actual numbers and unspun the spin for us.

One thing to note is that the Shia and the Sunni do agree on one thing, things will get better when the foreign troops leave.

Regionally there are significant differences on attitudes towards the relationship between the security situation and the presence of troops. Nationally, one in two (53%) feels that the security situation in Iraq will get better in the immediate weeks following a withdrawal of Multi National Forces.

However, those in the South appear to be more ready to accept a gradual withdrawal than those in the North. 69% of the Shia dominated South feel the situation will get a great deal/little better, while only 10% feel it will get worse. In the Sunni north, opinion is evenly divided – 46% feel it will get better and 37% feel it will get worse.

Of course the Murdoch owned times leaves that statistic out.