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According to the Gallup Poll, 72% of Americans hold an unfavorable opinion of Russian President Putin, while 22% hold a favorable opinion. The margin of error is also 6% so that the favorable opinion may be much smaller. Notice that the Gallup numbers do not add up – because of those who say that they view him neither favorably or unfavorably, i.e. “Never heard of” or “No opinion”.

It would then also be correct to say that 78%, over 2/3rds, do NOT view Putin favorably, since the 6% who do not view him unfavorably, also do not view him favorably.

Intentionally or not, Art Swift’s Gallup article discussing their poll results has introduced pro-Putin bias both by the misleading title “Putin’s Image Rises in US, Mostly Among Republicans“, FEBRUARY 21, 2017 and by the order of his statement: “22% of Americans hold a favorable opinion of Putin; 72% unfavorable“. Why not 72% unfavorable and 22% favorable? Did the order of questioning also introduce bias?

Why not say that 90% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans do NOT view Putin favorably? That is a true statement. Rather the author, Art Swift, says that 32% of Republicans view Putin favorably and just 10% of Democrats. They give some of the raw data here, but not by political party. Here the statistics suggest the increase coming from “never heard” of Putin or “no opinion”: http://www.gallup.com/file/poll/204215/170221%20Russia%20(Trends).pdf This change suggests the overabundance of the pro-Putin news outlets, including white nationalist ones, created this opinion. Before where there was “never heard” of Putin or “no opinion” and now it’s pro-Putin.

Read the article here: “Putin’s Image Rises in US, Mostly Among Republicans” POLITICS FEBRUARY 21, 2017 http://www.gallup.com/poll/204191/putin-image-rises-mostly-among-republicans.aspx

Picking up on Art Swift’s intentional or unintentional Gallup distortion, Kenneth Rapoza, who says he writes on business in Russia, spins the title to be even more misleading at Forbes: “Sorry, Senator McCain, American Approval Of Russia’s President Putin Nearly Doubles“, Kenneth Rapoza FEB 23, 2017 @ 10:26 AM 11,764 VIEWS https://www.forbes. com/sites/kenrapoza/2017/02/23/sorry-senator-mccain-approval-of-russias-president-putin-nearly-doubles

Whether you disdain or love Senator McCain, 72% of Americans agree with him on Putin! Furthermore, these sorts of distortions are also more dangerous than some fake news.