There’s a lot of buzz being invested in a new WAPO-ABC poll on the idea of torturing detainees in the name of fighting terror.
A majority of Americans believe that the harsh interrogation techniques used on terrorism suspects after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were justified, even as about half the public says the treatment amounted to torture, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
By an almost 2-1 margin, or 59-to-31 percent, those interviewed support the CIA’s brutal methods, with the vast majority of supporters saying they produced valuable intelligence.
In general, 58 percent say the torture of suspected terrorists can be justified “often” or “sometimes.”
There’s a lot wrong with a poll like this. First and most obvious is the fact that you don’t judge matters of basic morality via popular opinion. Popular opinion has, over time, brought you such moral public policies as “slavery is cool,” “we should burn women if they’re suspected of being witches,” and “let’s toss those Christians into an arena with a bunch of lions.” It’s not a great barometer of right and wrong.
Second is the degree to which poll results like this represent a failure of the media to do its most basic job, inform the public of the things being done in its name. Our journalists have spent the past 13 years letting “24” be the first, middle, and last word on torture’s morality and efficacy; is it any wonder that most of the public thinks it’s OK? Josh Keating explains:
Does it matter if you include the word “torture” in the question itself? While other recent polls haven’t mentioned the word at all, a recent Pew survey that asks flat out whether “torture to gain important information from suspected terrorists can be justified” found a lower but still significant level of support. Americans have only grown more supportive of torture over time, with support increasing since Pew started asking this question in 2004.
Whether you use the word or not, Americans are OK with torture because they believe it’s effective at gaining information that couldn’t be obtained by any other means. The fact that the Senate report knocked down that argument doesn’t seem to have gotten much traction.
If not torture, what do Americans oppose? Things start to change when you get really specific. A recent post on the Washington Post’s Post Everything site by three political scientists notes that when you ask specifically about techniques like “waterboarding,” “sexual humiliation,” and “exposure to extreme heat/cold,” most Americans do oppose them. They’re less bothered by “stress positions” or “sleep deprivation,” which I would imagine is a function of the fact that people don’t understand what they are.
This is the inverse of the polling we see around the Affordable Care Act, where most people support most of the specific provisions of the law but oppose the overall law. Americans generally support the CIA’s “interrogation” program, but if you explain what that program actually entailed in detail, suddenly that support evaporates. If only there were some group of people, some profession if you will, whose primary responsibility were to inform people — to “report” to them, if you will — about the details of matters of public policy. Then people might be better educated about these things.
Ah, well, ifs and buts, right?
Finally, I think Atrios also makes a great point here:
it’s always telling which poll results washington insiders trumpet.
— Atrios (@Atrios) December 16, 2014
59% of Americans support torture, at least as they understand it, and that’s big news that should inform government policy going forward. Meanwhile 67% of Americans think that the way wealth is distributed in this country is unacceptable, and if you can find anybody within the DC city limits who will even talk about those poll results, let along someone who’s prepared to advance a serious argument for wealth redistribution in this country, please point him or her out to the rest of us. Elizabeth Warren, maybe? Bernie Sanders? I hate to harp on our friends in the media, but why is one of these polling results deemed significant and the other one is hardly ever mentioned?
The Foreign Exchanges Companion 
If you write about one poll you get promoted, if you write about the other poll you wind up reporting milk prices in Vermont. I’m afraid it really is as simple as that. Personally I love milk but then I was never going to win awards for self preservation anyway.
That’s unfortunately it.