By: E&P Staff Many months after the press -- and then top figures in the Bush administration -- disclosed that the U.S. had yet to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, or clear links between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, huge segments of the American public continue to hold views that appear out of step with this information.
Survey results released this month from the latest national Harris Poll raise this question: Is the press doing something wrong or is the public turned off to facts that do not fit their view of current events?
The poll found that a 51% to 38% majority of the respondents continues to believe that "Iraq actually had weapons of mass destruction when the war began," almost unchanged since the last poll in February.
A 49% to 36% plurality continues to believe that "clear evidence that Iraq was supporting al Qaeda has been found"-- numbers that have changed little since June 2003, despite the lack of a compelling link uncovered.
According to the polling company, "The remarkable stability of these numbers suggest that people have made up their minds on many of the key issues relating to weapons of mass destruction and links to al Qaeda, and that it would take something very big to change them. It seems that people believe media reports which fit with their opinions and reject those which do not."
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