POLLING (AND TROLLING) FOR BIAS: The latest issue of the "New Criterion" is online. There's an interesting article by James Bowman entitled "Reporting Innuendo." It's about the ways "opinion polls" get spun into influential news stories.

That the Democrats should be counting on making political gains by stressing the suggestive concatenation of “George Bush, Enron, bankruptcy, Texas and campaign contributions all mixed together,” is hardly surprising. But that their rhetorical strategy is so easily and naturally adopted by the media as well is a testimony to the extent to which the media culture has sold its soul to the public opinion industry. How can we help it, they ask, if the Roys and the Davids that they never stop asking for their opinions never stop returning the opinions that previous generations of Roys and Davids, equally unchallenged, have passed on to them? The answer is that they can help it by putting truth and not opinion at the center of their focus.

Also, the "New Criterion" posts its excellent Notes & Comments. This month, the editors consider political correctness in art, the hypocrisy of Susan Sontag, and that Berkeley sex class that caused a stir earlier in February.