Dear journalists who keep writing that Americans don't support affirmative action but do think colleges should do something to have more POC students:
Your job is to explain what affirmative action actually is, and that the people who know what it actually is and oppose it are racists.
Do this in the headline and first sentence of the first paragraph, not the tenth paragraph.
Stop licking boots for ten seconds and do your fucking job.
I mean to be fair, they're not the ones doing the polling that's misleading.
But yes, we saw the same thing with the debt limit and Obamacare. If you ask people "Hey, do you like it?" they are incredibly uninformed. But if you explain it to them, they tend to have better opinions.
I think the reality in general is that people tend to know shockingly little about government policy. People tend to vote based on the personalities of leaders rather than policy.
@finley I feel part of it is a sort of variant of the Gish Gallop that happens a lot in politics.
Broadly speaking, I'd like to see journalists pushing back against the idea that they have to explain bullshit, before they point out that it was bullshit.
Obviously journalists are under a lot of constraints, but we all are, more or less.
@foolishowl I read one of those articles on the recent polling about the decision tonight, and besides it being a great example of why using "most Americans" headlines when the % is under 55, I read this article and was all WTF MOST AMERICANS?!?!/1
@foolishowl Especially when I got to this quote, "Still, despite most Americans supporting the decision to end affirmative action in universities, Americans are less likely to think Black and Hispanic students have a fair chance of getting into the college of their choice compared to their white and Asian student counterparts."
So a people who do believe it's not fair for Black and Hispanic students still approve the decision. Hmm.
anothername
FoolishOwl
Tasha
Jackie Gardina
Johanna's Garden
Finley Ⓥ
Bellison22
Paul