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Re:Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Sena... by anigbrowl on Tuesday July 16, 2013 @05:45PM (#6054946)
widely disapproved of by the general public

[citation needed]

Re:Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Sena... by ianterrell on Tuesday July 16, 2013 @06:25PM (#6055139)
Here are three polls that show between 41% and 58% disapproval: http://www.imediaethics.org/Blog/3984/Why_3_polls_on_nsa_sno...

Sure, that's far from unanimous, but "widely disapproved of by the general public" doesn't seem like a terrible stretch.

On the subject of polls, this article also shows the meta trends that this discussion is a part of: http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/public-o...

Re:Email exchange between Edward Snowden and former GOP Sena... by anigbrowl on Tuesday July 16, 2013 @08:18PM (#6055519)
I don't think supports the original claim at all.

FTA: All three pollsters asked their respondents how closely they had followed the NSA issue, and all three found just over a quarter of Americans following the issue “very closely,” while they found from about a third to half not paying close attention at all.

So, how could they report 90% or more of the public with a meaningful opinion about the NSA tracking program? The answer: They all used a “forced-choice” question format, which pressures respondents to make an on-the-spot decision, regardless of how committed they might be to that view. Thus, many people with no real views on the matter had to come up with one, and were thus highly influenced by the priming they had undergone during the interview itself.