War in Ukraine: What should the U.S. do now?

· Leave a Comment

There’s strong support for sending Ukraine more weapons to help in their fight, and increased sanctions against Russia find favor, too, as Americans watch continued horrors of the war unfold.

And while few back direct U.S. military action in Ukraine right now, Americans do have a “red line” that could change that: Russian use of chemical or nuclear weapons or an attack into NATO territory would spur a big majority backing for U.S. military action in response. CONTINUED

Anthony Salvanto, Fred Backus & Jennifer De Pinto, CBS News

The OPINION TODAY email newsletter is a concise daily rundown of significant new poll results and insightful analysis. It’s FREE. Sign up here: opiniontoday.substack

Fox News isn’t news

· Leave a Comment

The problem with Fox “News,” the cable TV channel, isn’t just what it is — it’s also what it isn’t.

It is often a purveyor of propaganda and misinformation. What it’s not is a source of “news” — at least not by any normal definition.

That’s one of the conclusions I drew from a fascinating new study in which arch-conservative Fox TV viewers were paid to watch CNN for a month. The study, titled “The manifold effects of partisan media on viewers’ beliefs and attitudes: A field experiment with Fox News viewers,” was performed by a pair of political scientists: David Broockman, who teaches at UC-Berkeley, and Joshua Kalla, who teaches at Yale. CONTINUED

Dan Froomkin (Press Watch), NBC News THINK

The OPINION TODAY email newsletter is a concise daily rundown of significant new poll results and insightful analysis. It’s FREE. Sign up here: opiniontoday.substack

More Americans prefer daylight saving time to standard time

· Leave a Comment

Nearly a month into daylight saving time, many Americans want things to stay that way. More Americans prefer permanent daylight saving time to permanent standard time, but not overwhelmingly so. Those who want more daylight in the evening rather than the morning all year round say it’s because it puts them in a better mood and they feel more productive later in the day, among other reasons they gave for preferring daylight standard time. CONTINUED

Jennifer De Pinto, CBS News

The OPINION TODAY email newsletter is a concise daily rundown of significant new poll results and insightful analysis. It’s FREE. Sign up here: opiniontoday.substack

America’s pastime is changing

· Leave a Comment

Another year, another delayed Opening Day. Instead of the pandemic causing disruptions, stalled contract negotiations pushed the MLB Opening Day back this year.

Contracts aside, taking a wide view, the last two years have sprung new changes for America’s past time. Thanks to the lockout, digital media adoption, and, of course, the pandemic, baseball and sports (more generally) look and feel different.

We examine the trends shaping how people follow their favorite sports. Also, how younger adults, in particular, are beginning to seem a lot different than everyone else when it comes to sports fandom. CONTINUED

Clifford Young, Sarah Feldman & Catherine Morris, Ipsos

The OPINION TODAY email newsletter is a concise daily rundown of significant new poll results and insightful analysis. It’s FREE. Sign up here: opiniontoday.substack

January 6th, Roe v. Wade as the Known Unknowns for 2022

· Leave a Comment

When asked in early 2002 to provide evidence that Saddam Hussein tried to supply weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld replied, “There are known knowns — there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns — that is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

The three categories of (un)certainty — known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns — are useful when trying to evaluate an upcoming election.

For example, a “known known” is that historically the party holding the White House fares poorly in midterm elections. We can put the 2020 global health pandemic into the “unknown unknowns” category. But, most of the energy and focus of every election is on the “known unknowns”; things or events that we know are going to happen, but we don’t quite understand the outcome or impact of those events. CONTINUED

Amy Walter, Cook Political Report with Amy Walter

The OPINION TODAY email newsletter is a concise daily rundown of significant new poll results and insightful analysis. It’s FREE. Sign up here: opiniontoday.substack

LGBTQ issues are at center stage. What does the public think?

· Leave a Comment

In the years after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, the Republican Party seemed to gradually conclude that it had lost the battle over LGBTQ rights — and that it wasn’t really worth fighting anymore. …

But it’s possible that, in the years since Obergefell v. Hodges, LGBT rights have never been as front-and-center in political discourse as they are right now. Conservatives have launched high-profile culture wars over transgender athletes and, more recently, a Florida law restricting teachers from discussing sexual orientation and gender identity, and Democrats are particularly incensed about the latter.

We’ve had a very limited — and often unclear and even contradictory — picture of where Americans stand on these issues, thanks to a paucity of public polling. That’s beginning to change, though. Below are some takeaways from, and analysis of, the recent polling. CONTINUED

Aaron Blake, Washington Post

The OPINION TODAY email newsletter is a concise daily rundown of significant new poll results and insightful analysis. It’s FREE. Sign up here: opiniontoday.substack