What Atrios Says

I agree with this:

When is an issue "controversial?"

When does an issue "divide the nation?"

When is it appropriate to describe a person by saying that some people love them and some people hate them?

I've never manged to see any pattern regarding what poll numbers justify such descriptions. I've seen 50-50 splits on issues described as "dividing the nation" and I've seen 75-25 splits described the same way.

Stop it.

I had the same complaint with the Terri Schiavo story. The Press repeatedly stated that Schiavo's situation was "dividing the nation." In reality, something like 80% of the nation felt that the radical extremists in the Bush Regime and in Congress should have stayed the hell out of it.