Demagogue

The most recent USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll asked 1,000+ adults the following question

In the past few weeks, which news story would you say you have followed more closely: the tsunami disaster in Asia or the situation in Iraq?

Not surprisingly, the results were as follows

Tsunami - 72%

Iraq - 21%

I wonder if the constant media coverage of the tsunami might have anything to do with the fact that the vast majority of people report having followed the story more closely.

A search of media reports since December 26th shows that there have been 68363 newspaper and magazine articles or television and radio programs mentioning the tsunami versus 24548 mentioning Iraq. (During the same period, there have been 1755 stories mentioning Darfur.)

Do you think that the fact that the media has run nearly three times more stories on the tsunami than on Iraq might have anything to do with this?

Man, I hate polls(ters)!