We know this because the subhead of a front page article told readers that: "more support if public option dropped." This was based on a new poll that showed that opposition to health care reform fell modestly if the public option was dropped from the plan. The Post could have also opted to highlight another poll finding: 55 percent of those polled support the public option. By comparison, only 46 percent of those polled supported the package as a whole. A real newspaper might have headlined this article: "public continues to have highly favorable view of public option," but this is the Washington Post.
--Dean Baker
