Financial News?

Does somebody wanna tell me why this story is in Financial News? Huh?

"ROCHESTER, N.Y., April 21 /PRNewswire/ -- A new Harris Poll finds that public perceptions of the facts that led up to the invasion of Iraq remain almost unchanged in spite of a barrage of media reports that might have changed them.
For example:
-- A 51% to 38% majority continues to believe that "Iraq actually had
weapons of mass destruction," virtually unchanged since February.

-- A 49% to 36% plurality of all adults continues to believe that "clear
evidence that Iraq was supporting Al Qaeda has been found." These
numbers have scarcely changed since June 2003.

-- A 51% to 43% plurality continues to believe that "intelligence given
before the war to President Bush by the CIA and others about Iraqi's
weapons of mass destruction" was "completely" or "somewhat" accurate.
In February a 50% to 45% plurality believed this.

-- While a 43% plurality believes that the "U.S. government deliberately
exaggerated the reports of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to
increase support for war," a 50% plurality (also virtually unchanged
over the last eight months) continues to believe that the government
"tried to present the information accurately."


These are the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 979 adults surveyed by telephone by Harris Interactive® between April 8 and 15, 2004."

So it's not just that Richard Perle (see below) is insane; it's that he's got a lot of company. Insane or ignorant, the outcome is apparently the same.

Shouldn't the Kerry Campaign be out every day repeating the mantra of "There were no WMD, there were no WMD," or what? How about "No Iraq-to-al-Qaeda links"? The Bush people have mastered the art of repeating a lie often enough to make it the truth. Well, the Kerry people need to learn how to repeat the truth often enough to re-establish it as such. All they've got to do is keep saying it.

I realize, of course, the giant ethical morass that exists should people simply start using repetition to establish whatever "facts" they choose. The problem is that some people (see also: Bush Administration, Rumsfeld the Idiot, and Ashcroft the Choad) are already doing that. If people listened to the lessons in their ethics courses (ha!), or even took the courses at all, maybe that would help.

Speaking of ethics, I should say that I found the link in the comment board over at Eschaton (link to the right).