Baghdad urban legends: how come so many people think weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq, or that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the September 11 attacks? Are the news media to blame?

American Journalism Review,  October, 2003  by Robertson, Lori

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

Armed with at least the opportunity to have learned much about the war in Iraq--what with the months-long build-up, the up-close-and-embedded coverage, the pages upon pages of newsprint and hours upon hours of airtime--and prodded with multiple-choice and yes-or-no answers, the American public still fared poorly on current events polls.

The results from throughout this year suggest that a good portion of the public didn't do its homework. Polls have revealed people harbor a number of misconceptions or bits of false reformation about Iraq. For instance:

* In a January Knight ...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.