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Friday, December 16, 2005

Aljazeera and the click democracy

An Aljazeera poll on Syria's involvement in the Lebanon attacks has created an online frenzy among some Lebanese, who are forwarding e-mails and running web ads urging participation in the vote.



Do you believe Syria is involved in the Lebanon explosions?
1. Yes
2. No







The following is from an e-mail I received this morning urging me to vote:
AL Jazeera.net is conducting a Vote, to see if Syria is responsible of the Explosions in Lebanon or not ?

What do you think ?????????

Syrians are voting by the loads, that they are not responsible....

the vote will finish this saturday, let all ur friends vote

Long Live Lebanon ...
Naharnet is even running a banner calling on its readers to "make a difference... vote in Aljazeera Poll."

Last I checked, the pro-Lebanon camp was losing. I could claim here that the loss is predictable given the leanings of "Arab public opinion" . But I won't, because Aljazeera.net will most likely do that on Saturday. After every poll, that site publishes a story claiming the vote is a reflection of people's opinions. I and many others disagree with such a claim.

Here's what CNN prints after every online poll or "quick vote":

This QuickVote is not scientific and reflects the opinions of only those Internet users who have chosen to participate. The results cannot be assumed to represent the opinions of Internet users in general, nor the public as a whole. The QuickVote sponsor is not responsible for content, functionality or the opinions expressed therein.
Add to the above that anybody can vote an infinite number of times after clearing the browser's cache and cookies. I personally voted at least 5 times.

So by all means go and vote, but let us not turn it into a patriotic duty. It is just going to make us mad when we see Syria acquitted by some smug and scientifically-challenged online editor.

Comments:
Hmm... Al-Jazeerah you say?

Thought the later days knights of freedom-loving chivalry had razed this venomous nest of backward Bedouin Baathist “terrism”!

Tw. Remind me to send a memo to Dick and Rummy: damn it! What’s the use of having “Camp Doha” if we can’t nuke these Ayyyrab savages’ media outlets?
 
This poll is ridiculous. 70% of Arabs believe that Syria had nothing to do with Tueni's murder. I am telling ya, the Arabs live in a parallel universe that is not reality.
 
There is an IP limit of 10 votes per each IP.So you can vote 5 times more in addition to your already done 5 votes.

I fully agree with you, this is so not representative.
 
A society/culture that cannot tell reality from fiction is (and has been) DOOMED.
 
Dr Humphrey Bogart wrote : "This poll is ridiculous. 70% of Arabs believe that Syria had nothing to do with Tueni's murder. I am telling ya, the Arabs live in a parallel universe that is not reality."

Well, 2 years ago, 85 % of Americans belived that Iraq had WMD's and 65 % of Americans believe to this day that Saddam had links to Al Qaeda.

So criticize this stupid Jazeera poll as much as you want but don't pass judgements on an entire people (like "Arabs live in a parallel universe that is not reality")
 
The Jazeera poll was cooked.

12 hours before its closure, the pro Syrians were neck to neck with the anti Syrians with about 50,000 votes each.

A couple of hours later, boom! 300,000 votes in for the pro Syrians for a final result of 72% of "voters" claiming that Syria did not have anything to do with the wave of assassinations.

Al Jazeera must have scored a world record of online polls with a grand total of 473,002 "voters"!

Even the champress posters couldn't believe their eyes:

http://www.champress.net/?page=show_det&id=5864

Check posts 2, 3 & 5.
 
Ramez says;

Well, 2 years ago, 85 % of Americans belived that Iraq had WMD's

See my earlier post.

2 years ago everybody on the planet had REASON to believe that Saddam had WMD's, not least of which was history and Saddam's own behavior.

The UNSC voted several times on that in 1990's.

Now new information is out, and some Americans have changed their minds on WMD's.


What evidence do these al-Jaz Arabs have that it is not Syria blowing up Lebanon? The last 30 years mean nothing? Mehlis report nothing?

Will these Arabs ever change their minds? I think not.

And these are the so-called sophisticated ones with internet access to all info in the world.

What's left for the majority of Arabs with no access but to sicko government propaganda?

That is precisely why the Arabs have reached ZERO of their goals in the past century or so (save for the 200,000 in who have an oil well per family)
 
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