WASHINGTON (BP)--Americans apparently did not support the starvation and dehydration of Terri Schiavo after all.

A new poll by Zogby International showed the public favors protecting disabled people such as Schiavo from being denied food and water, according to LifeNews.com. The survey results contradict those of surveys conducted before Schiavo’s March 31 death and commissioned by major news media organizations.

Schiavo, 41, died in a Pinellas Park, Fla., hospice 13 days after being disconnected from a feeding tube. The severely brain-damaged woman was at the center of a battle between her husband, Michael, and parents, Bob and Mary Schindler. Her husband contended she would not have wanted to be kept alive by a feeding tube, although no written guidelines existed. Her parents sought to keep her alive and offered to care for her. A state judge ordered her tube be disconnected March 18.

In the Zogby poll, the public was asked, “If a disabled person is not terminally ill, not in a coma and not being kept alive on life support, and they have no written directive, should or should they not be denied food and water?” The result showed 79 percent said the person should continue to receive food and water, while only 9 percent said food and water should be withheld, LifeNews reported. The question closely described Schiavo’s condition when her feeding tube was removed.

And this was the crux of the issue. People couldn't come to an informed opinion because most media stories and polls on the matter completely misrepresented the issue similar to the way this ABC News poll did:

In a poll sponsored by ABC News and released March 21, however, 63 percent of Americans polled supported the disconnection of Schiavo’s feeding tube. The survey’s description of the woman said she had “suffered brain damage and has been on life support for 15 years. Doctors say she has no consciousness and her condition is irreversible.”

Most of which was patently false, as anyone who paid attention to the case knows. And partly due to this misinformation and the ignorance it bred, a woman died. But why should we be surprised? Half-truths and misinformation are a staple of the modern liberal media. We don't get the facts on most issues. We get the only the liberal spin the media wants us to hear. If you want the real story, you've got to pay attention and dig deep.

In the liberal media, killing babies is spun to be "a woman's right to choose". In the liberal media, Social Security is spun as a "retirement plan". In the liberal media, gay marriage is spun as "a civil right". In the liberal media, natural changes in the climate are spun as "man-made global warming". And as we all know, in the liberal media, a brain damaged, disabled woman is spun right into the grave.

Perhaps un-spun public opinion wouldn't have made a difference in the Schiavo case. But then again, if more people had the actual facts in this case instead of the liberal spin, perhaps there would have been enough to outrage to bring the common sense realization to some lawmakers that what was taking place was anything but constitutional and they didn't have to stand by helplessly and watch it happen.

Source: Baptist Press News