An article from the non-profit Center Square news wire recently proclaimed with certainty that "a majority of Americans" applaud President Trump’s order forcing every federal employee back to the office.

Scratch the surface, though, and the arithmetic crumbles.

The poll itself, conducted by the news wire reveals that only 43 percent of respondents endorse returning all federal workers to their desks, a figure printed in the third paragraph of the story. That's not a majority.

Another 27 percent support an order that affects "essential" employees. Yet those men and women were already in the office under former President Joe Biden's return-to-office requirement. By fusing those two camps together and labeling the sum a "majority," the article inflates support for Trump’s sweeping mandate. This buries the inconvenient fact that no, 57 percent do not back sending every telework-eligible civil servant back into downtown D.C.

The distortion deepens when you examine the opposition numbers. Sixteen percent flatly reject any in-office mandate, and 14 percent remain unsure, according to the same survey. Even with this doubt on the record, the piece frames skepticism as fringe.

The structure of the questionnaire supplies the trick; it blends Biden’s status-quo option with Trump’s radical shift and reports the blend as enthusiasm for universal in-office work in the federal government.

That sleight of hand does not survive a second look, yet many readers never get that second look because the packaging feels authoritative. The framing matters because headlines travel........

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