Stefan-
An interesting piece. But as the author of the Radar story that launched this meditation, I must quibble with one assertion. You say:
Radar Magazine has informed its readers, with some degree of sensational overkill, that over one-third of Americans believe “that the government conspired in, or had precise foreknowledge of, the 9/11 attacks.” I dare call it overkill because one never knows the precise language of the polls’ questions.
We do, in fact, know the precise language. Radar asked the question as part of poll that we ran in our November issue, conducted by a highly respected polling firm. (Link below.) And the Scripps Howard poll that produced similar results, framed the question like this: “Thirty-six percent of respondents overall said it is “very likely” or “somewhat likely” that federal officials either participated in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon or took no action to stop them “because they wanted the United States to go to war in the Middle East.”
www.scrippsnews.com/911poll
There really was no sensationalizing — somewhere between a third and 40% Americans apparently do believe this. And among certain demographics — single men and minorities, for instance — the figure seems to be above 50%. Much could be said about why, but it’s false to say that we overplayed the data.
