The Sun and capital punishment: go figure
So, 99 per cent of the respondents to The Sun’s survey on capital punishment are calling for its return. That’s ‘nearly’ 100,000 people.
The Sun’s been struggling with its circulation of late but let’s be generous and say it sells ‘nearly’ three million copies a day. That being the case, The Sun’s survey reveals that just 3.3% of its readership supports the return of capital punishment.
Or 0.16 per cent of the entire population.
It’s a trick they’ve used before, of course. And you can’t really blame them, this being a better* headline…
…than this…
* ‘Better’ in this case meaning its ability to shift more copies, and nothing to do with its accuracy or quality.
Update: Tim does a better analysis.
Posted on February 25th, 2008 at 12:24pm under Crime and punishment, Culture, media and sport
99% of Sun readers want the State to hang them?
I’d suggest that their survey is a perfectly representative sample…
99% of Sun readers are braindead muppets, who’ll regurgitate anything Murdoch tells them to.
99% of Sun readers could do with a birch across their backsides followed by a lobotomy.
The Sun itself often claims that in reality it has around 8 million readers, which means an even lower actual sample. If the poll is the same one as the one I voted on on saturday, you could vote multiple times, at least on the online one, further bringing the sample down.