Media Matters--Post Poll Flawed

Flawed Wash. Post/ABC News poll suggested no link between NSA data collection and warrantless spying -- despite Post's own contrary report
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However, the poll question affirmatively claimed that the NSA is not "listening to or recording the conversations" captured by the data collection program. This statement suggests -- falsely, according to the Post itself -- that the data collection program is separate from the NSA's warrantless domestic eavesdropping program, first publicly revealed by The New York Times in December 2005. In fact, according to a May 12 Post article, the two programs are directly linked: "Government access to call records is related to the previously disclosed eavesdropping program, sources said, because it helps the NSA choose its targets for listening. The mathematical techniques known as 'link analysis' and 'pattern analysis,' they said, give grounds for suspicion that can result in further investigation." In other words, according to The Washington Post itself -- and contrary to the poll question -- the NSA might well be "listening to or recording the conversations" of at least some Americans as a direct result of its analysis of the phone record data the NSA is collecting.