Early 'Wash Post' poll on NSA phone spying refuted

They may be owned by the same company, but two polls commissioned by the Washington Post and Newsweek magazine on the important issue of public approval of the National Security Agency's (NSA) gathering of phone records produced quite different results. Now a USA Today/Gallup poll suggests that the original Washington Post poll was highly misleading. On May 12, a widely-publicized Washington Post/ABC survey revealed that 63 percent of US citizens said they found the NSA program to be an acceptable way to investigate terrorism, including 44 percent who strongly endorsed the effort. Only 35 percent said the program was unacceptable. This apparently inspired Time magazine to produce an article that suggested that President Bush might actually benefit from the revelations. Then a Newsweek poll released the next day found that 53 percent of US citizens believe that reports that the NSA has been secretly collecting the phone records of US citizens goes too far in invading people's privacy. Some 41 percent felt it was a necessary tool to combat terrorism. On May 14, the USA Today/Gallup survey came up with almost the same results. By 51 percent-43 percent, those polled disapproved of the program. So what happened? Most likely views changed that much in one day after more negative media reports surfaced (including many from conservative commentators such as MSNBC's Joe Scarborough). The Washington Post survey took place before many US citizens had heard about, or thought about, the implications. The Newsweek Poll also reached twice as many US citizens, and the USA Today/Gallup survey almost as many. The Washington Post/ABC survey was conducted on May 11, just after the NSA news broke via USA Today, and reached just 502 citizens. Newsweek polled 1007 US citizens on both May 11 and 12. USA Today/Gallup polled on May 12 and 13. The Newsweek results were pretty stark: 57 percent of US citizens say the administration has gone too far in expanding presidential power, while only 38 percent say they have not. The president's job approval rating in this poll declined one point to 35 percent.