Monday, Aug. 14, 1989
From the Publisher
By Robert L. Miller
Few issues galvanize public opinion more than terrorism, and few journalistic devices can tap those feelings more succinctly than an opinion poll. This week we decided that our cover story on the hostage crisis in Lebanon needed an accurate reading of popular thought, so we asked our regular polling firm, Connecticut-based Yankelovich Clancy Shulman, to conduct a survey. On one day, 25 interviewers telephoned 500 people at random and asked them 22 questions for an average of six minutes. The results were put into computers and tabulated, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5% taken into account. They were then sent to Nation editor Robert T. Zintl in the Time & Life Building in Manhattan, where they were incorporated into the cover story.
This week's poll is the tenth done for TIME this year by Yankelovich Clancy Shulman, which conducts polling and market research for a variety of corporations, business associations and publications. Since January we have shared our polls with Cable News Network, which broadcasts the results on its 24-hour news shows. Observes Zintl: "If you can get a measure of public sentiment, and some of the reasons behind it, that can be very valuable to the reader. It can add evidence to what we're finding out anecdotally."
The polls can be surprising as well as illuminating. Before the presidential election, for instance, TIME surveys about G.O.P. contenders revealed an undetected support for George Bush that presaged his march to the White House. And a TIME poll taken after the stock-market crash of 1987 showed that contrary to cries of financial doom, most Americans did not think Wall Street's woes really affected them much. Last week, when we profiled the rise of television-news stars, the editors found it useful to survey their relative importance to the public.
Opinion research can also have an impact that transcends the week's news. Says Hal Quinley, a senior vice president at Yankelovich: "Polls, along with the press, are one of the many ways people comment and respond to their political leaders." We happen to agree, but as always, we encourage our readers to form their own opinions.