Mohammed Alkhereiji, Arab News Staff

JEDDAH, 22 September 2003 — Two conflicting stories on Saudi Arabia’s popularity in the United States made headlines in the local press last week.

According to the Sept. 18 edition of Al-Watan newspaper, a recent poll by TIME/CNN has found that 72 percent believe that the US cannot trust Saudi Arabia as an ally. But a story in Okaz newspaper with the same dateline quotes a TIME online poll question with seemingly the opposite result.

According to Okaz, “TIME magazine shows that 85.4 percent of visitors to their website have voted that it is in the best interest of the American people to trust Saudi Arabia especially when it comes to the war on terror.”

The article goes on to say, “Despite this, the US has taken steps that go against public opinion. Some inside the current American administration, and members of the media, continue their smear campaign against the Kingdom.”

What the newspaper forgot to mention is that a disclaimer below the poll results clearly states: “This is an unscientific, informal survey for the interest and enjoyment of Time.com users and may not be indicative of popular opinion.”

The Okaz report is based on a poll section called “TIME quick vote results.”

On the other hand, the Al-Watan report quotes a poll conducted by TIME/CNN, asking the question: “Do you think that Saudi Arabia is a country that the US can trust as an ally?”

Seventy-two percent said no. In answer to the next question, whether Saudi Arabia is cooperating with the US as much as it can in the war on terror, 71 percent believed it was not. These results are from a telephone poll of 1,003 Americans taken for TIME/CNN on Sept. 3-4 by Harris interactive market research and consulting firm.

Meanwhile, one of the latest polls by Harris interactive shows that the US public thinks that news reporting has gotten worse since Sept. 11, 2001.