NEWSWEEK Polls About Stem Cell Method That Does Not Exist

The MSM is beyond competence, it seems. Newsweek, hot to trot to turn the public away from supporting President Bush’s stem cell financing policy took a poll in the wake of the media hysteria about Advanced Cell Technology’s non advance getting ES cells without destroying embryos. The results: “Fifty percent of Americans believe that the Bush administration should change its stance and support federal funding for stem-cell research in light of a newly discovered method that may allow scientists to obtain stem cells from human embryos without destroying the embryo, according to the latest Newsweek Poll.”

Two points. The “newly discovered method” does not yet exist. Second, look at the poll ratings: “Overall, 48 percent of those polled say they support the use of federal tax dollars to fund medical research using stem cells; 40 percent say they do not support it.” So, the country is almost evenly divided about federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, not wildly against the President’s policy. No wonder the science community and media are in a dither to skew the debate.