Ah ha! One of the t…

Ah ha! One of the things that Hugh Hewitt mentioned in my call to him yesterday was that he wanted to see the questions in that ABC News poll about what Americans thought about the Terri Schiavo case. Turns out, their questions were deceptive.

An ABC News poll reached the surprising conclusion that a majority of Americans think Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube should remain out so she can be starved to death, but the question posed by the news network portrayed her as having “no consciousness” and being on “life support,” rather than an awake, responsive patient with a feeding tube.

“Schiavo suffered brain damage and has been on life support for 15 years,” the poll informed respondents. “Doctors say she has no consciousness and her condition is irreversible. Her husband and her parents disagree about whether she would have wanted to be kept alive. Florida courts have sided with the husband and her feeding tube was removed on Friday. What’s your opinion on this case – do you support or oppose the decision to remove Schiavo’s feeding tube?”

In response, reported ABC, “the public, by 63 percent-28 percent, supports the removal of Schiavo’s feeding tube, and by a 25-point margin opposes a law mandating federal review of her case. Congress passed such legislation and President Bush signed it early today.”

Is this another case of the MSM trying to make the news in their ideological image? It certainly sounds that way. It’s pretty plain to anyone who’s seen any video of here, even the small snippets, that she’s not unconscious. Yet the “objective” folks at ABC News define someone who’s awake but with limited responses as having “no consciousness” and someone being fed as being on “life support”.

This is not an issue to be on the fence about, as Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds and Eugene Volokh seem to think is OK. I tend to agree with them on many issues, but I have to disagree with the idea that ignorance is somehow an excuse now. The Left has been misrepresenting Terri’s situation, and now the MSM proves (yes, yet again) that they’re firmly entrenched in liberal “values” to the point of dishonest polling to create “news”. Yeah, the denizens of Daily Kos love this sort of “fake but accurate” polling, but that should tell you more about their intellectual honesty that it does about American opinions.

UPDATE: More media bias in this story has been uncovered by LifeNews.com:

[A] Reuters piece appearing in hundreds of newspapers and on news web sites Monday claimed Terri “will almost certainly never recover from her unconscious condition” and added that “neurologists agree.”

The experts included a 10 year-old report on persistent vegetative cases and two doctors who have never seen Terri to evaluate her, but presumed she was in a PVS state and that she, like other PVS patients, has no chance to regain any normal cognitive functions.

The Reuters news story made no mention of the dozens of doctors who signed affidavits in favor of motions submitted by Terri Schiavo’s parents to have Terri tested before she was starved to death.

The article also did not feature quotes from any doctors who disagree that Terri is in a PVS state — such as Dr. William Hammesfahr, a Nobel Prize nominated neurologist who is an internationally recognized expert on cases of brain-injured patients.

“We, and others I know, have treated many patients worse than Terri and have seen them regain independence and dignity,” Hammesfahr said earlier this month. http://www.lifenews.com/bio748.html

“There are many approaches that would help Terri Schiavo,” Dr. Hammesfahr explained. “I know, because I had the opportunity to personally examine her, her medical records, and her X-rays.”

The Reuters article also failed to mention that Michael has withheld appropriate medical care or rehabilitative treatment for Terri for years.

“From Los Angeles to Miami to New York, the press, for the most part has become Michael Schiavo’s and George Felos’ propaganda machine,” Rojas concluded.

Somebody get these guys some editors.

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