CNN Poll: Most Americans don't blame Gov. Palin for AZ shootings

Not the outcome the network wanted?
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The results of a CNN/Opinion Research poll released Monday show that while leftist bloggers and many in the biased national media blame Sarah Palin for the shootings in Tuscon, a majority of Americans do not.

Politico's Andy Barr reported these findings, but pushed them down into the the sixth paragraph:

Former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin was widely vindicated in the poll for posting a map on her PAC’s website last year showing cross-hairs on Gifford’s district, as well as the district of 19 other members. Some on the left pointed the finger at Palin following the shooting, but only 35 percent of those polled said Palin deserves any blame. Fifty-nine percent said she deserves little or no blame

Barr made the lede of his story instead about Americans' attitudes regarding gun control. Those attitudes have not changed after the shootings, an outcome which comes as no surprise to anyone but theDemocrat/Media Complex. A majority of Americans have always supported their Second Amendment rights as guaranteed by the constitution. Perhaps Politico was hoping a sea change or something.

Charleston Daily Mail blogger Don Surber commented:

I don’t think the network brass got what they wanted.

Asked how much Sarah Palin had to do with it, 15% said not much and 44% said she had nothing to do with it — even though the question was loaded (“A map on Sarah Palin’s website that marked 20 congressional districts, including the district by the congresswoman who was shot…”).

That’s 59% who do not blame her.

Among independents, 58% did not blame her.

That means this has not hurt her — to be crass about a national tragedy.

So where did those surveyed place the blame for the shootings? According to Joe Newby at Examiner.com:

Most of those polled - 70 percent - said the underlying cause was "resources available to deal with mental illness."

Shortly after the shooting, many on the left, including some in the media, pointed a finger at Sarah Palin and the use of crosshair graphics on an ad. As a result, Palin has seen an increase in death threats, while some have used Twitter to spread death wishes.

Once again Americans have been ill served by the nation's press. A national dialog on getting help from mental health professionals to those who need them would have been constructive, and Gov. Palin and her family certainly didn't need the death threats. Even liberal The New Republic admitted that the liberal media "botched" its job of reporting on the Arizona tragedy, but Ethel C. Fenig at American Thinker explains that TNR's analysis is itself "an example of how the media botched the real story of the Arizona shooting." In other words, the media botched the explanation of how they botched their reporting.

Update: At Hot Air, Allahpundit Allahputz yet again demonstrates his anti-Palin bias by focusing on the negative, despite the fact that, as Surber points out, the wording of the poll's question was biased. The real takeaway from the poll -- a CNN poll no less -- is that a clear majority of 59 percent of Americans don't hold Gov. Palin responsible for the shootings. Still, AyyPee considers it significant that 35 percent think her map at least partially contributed to the shootings. Despite the media's shrinking influence, after such a week-long intensive media propaganda campaign, you could probably get a poll to show that 35 percent believe just about anything, no matter how ridiculous.

- JP