Light Readers apparently trust Al Qaeda more than the Bush Administration, according to early results of sister pub Light Reading's poll concerning the ongoing phone records database scandal. (See Someone's Listening...)

In answer to a poll question that asked "Which group do you find most trustworthy?" 23 percent chose Al Qaeda while only 21 percent chose the Bush Administration. Readers have a more sympathetic view of the RBOCs in the matter; 55 percent say they find the phone companies the most trustworthy of the three.

The bad guy in the phone records scandal, from our readers’ point of view, appears to be the NSA, and, by close association, the Bush Administration. Some 65 percent say that the agency is acting illegally by snooping through private phone records.

Contrarywise, most readers believe the carriers should share phone records with the government to help keep track of suspected terrorists. Roughly three-fourths believe the RBOCs are providing data to the NSA, despite their public claims.

BellSouth Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. are vigorously denying having supplied records for the NSA program. (See Verizon Denies NSA Reports .) BellSouth Friday called on USA Today to retract parts of the story that originally named it as a participant (with AT&T Corp. and Verizon) and so began the furor.

The poll has been up for less than 48 hours, and already 50 readers have weighed in. Light Reading's beloved monkey believes participation could reach into the thousands. But then the monkey eats fleas and sometimes throws his own feces.

Anyway, we’ll keep tabs on the voting and revisit the matter in another account next week. In the meantime, make your vote count.

— Mark Sullivan, Reporter, Light Reading, Special to Dark Reading

Organizations mentioned in this story: