Quite a question of bias

The Huntington Beach Independent deserves a prize for crafting one of

the most biased survey questions of the year in its July 7 edition.

A neutral question could have been: What do you think of the plan

to block United States foreign aid to Ethiopia? A question could have

been: What do you think of the plan to block giving United States

taxpayer money to Ethiopia because a Communist government there

seized the property of an American citizen and still refuses to pay

for it?

The question the Huntington Beach Independent did ask was: “What

do you think of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s plan to block funds to

Ethiopia to help a surfing buddy’s family?” A good follow-up question

would be: What do you think of plans to give hundreds of millions of

United States taxpayer money to African nations when the money goes

into the pockets of their government officials and the countries

remain poor?

* DON COHEN is a Huntington Beach resident. To contribute to

“Sounding Off” e-mail us at hbindependent@latimes.com or fax us at

(714) 966-4667.