BY DAN
KENNEDY
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Tuesday, July 29, 2003
Lies, damn lies, and polls.
No sooner did I post an
item about the latest
USA Today poll regarding attitudes toward homosexuality than
TB and JVC pointed me to another, later, story that appears to place
a
completely different interpretation
on the same numbers.
In today's USAT, Susan Page
reports:
Americans have become
significantly less accepting of homosexuality since a Supreme
Court decision that was hailed as clearing the way for new gay
civil rights, a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll has found. After several
years of growing tolerance, the survey shows a return to a level
of more traditional attitudes last seen in the mid-1990s.
The headline: an unequivocal "Poll
Shows Backlash on Gay Issues."
Yet I wasn't hallucinating when I
posted this
link to Page's Monday
story, headlined "Gay Rights Tough to Sharpen into Political 'Wedge
Issue.'" Here's the money graf:
Strategists in both
parties caution that the public's views are changing too rapidly
to provide an easy answer. A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll indicates
that public attitudes toward homosexuals are in the midst of a
transformation, though the issues involved remain controversial.
Analysts say the shift is fueled by a self-perpetuating cycle:
More gay men and lesbians are open about their sexual orientation,
prompting some of their family members and co-workers to revise
their views. That in turn makes it easier for others to come out
of the closet.
Regarding the sliding numbers, Page
wrote in her earlier story, "Analysts at Gallup said the question
would be asked again to test whether the finding reflected a change
in attitudes or a temporary blip." Her follow-up suggests no such
doubt about the veracity of the results.
A careful read of both stories
suggests that Page was being cautiously optimistic about the poll's
implications for gays and lesbians on Monday, and cautiously
pessimistic today. I find it interesting that Monday's story ran on
page 10A, whereas today's is on the front.
So what is going on
here?
posted at 11:10 AM |
comment or permalink
MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
