More Poor Polling to Generate "News"

In my last post I noted:

... public opinion pollsters and reporters take care to use at least a dozen words describing exactly who Scooter Libby is and what happened to him before they ask questions and express their views. Why? No complex explanation is needed: most people do not know who Libby is and do not care. Gallup found only 20 percent of Americans were even willing to claim to have followed the "news" concerning Libby's commutation "closely" and the survey was run after critics of the commutation dominated media airways for five solid days, providing a steady rain of contempt, doom and gloom. Even then, Gallup took no chance on talking to Americans and getting a bunch of "don't knows" and "no opinions." The survey question coached respondents as much as possible : "How closely are you following the news about President Bush's decision to commute the prison sentence of former vice presidential aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby?"

I have since stumbled upon this oldie but goodie from CNN's polling machine. Without even bothering to ask respondents if they were thinking about (or had even heard of) Scooter Libby, or if they knew anything about the case, or were following the trial, CNN asked:

As you may know, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Dick Cheney's former top aide, was recently found guilty of obstruction of justice and perjury in connection with the CIA leak investigation. Do you think George W. Bush should or should not give a presidential pardon to Libby?

Amazingly, 69 percent said "no." George W. Bush should not just go and "give" a pardon to a "recently" convicted "top aid." Go figure. The sense of outrage among the American public must be unprecedented!