Who oh why can't we have a better press corps, slanted poll questions edition

The increasingly shrill Dan Froomkin writes,

Worst Question Ever?

And here, from that same NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, is one of the most poorly phrased poll questions I have ever seen, and that's saying something.

"This week, Congress approved a new law to deal with how terrorism suspects are treated. This law prevents the United States from using torture to get information from terrorist suspects, allows these suspects to be held indefinitely without being charged of a crime, and prevents them from challenging their imprisonment in U.S. courts.

"Supporters say this is a good law because it protects suspects from being harmed and makes it more likely that U.S. troops will not be harmed if they are captured.

"Opponents of the law say that it is NOT a good law because it denies suspects the constitutional protections that other criminals receive, and compromises some of our most strongly held democratic ideals and our image around the world.

"In general, do you approve of this new law or do you disapprove of it?"

Even with that incredibly slanted question, more people disapproved (47 percent) than approved (43 percent).

But saying the law bans torture is really taking one side of the argument. The question also doesn't do justice to either side's publicly stated positions, equates terror suspects to 'other criminals' . . . . I could go on and on.