This is a very common way of using opinion polls to lie.

For our example we'll look at Bank Of Ireland's March 2009 Report that 38% of potential First Time Buyers are considering buying a home in the next 18 months.

What do you do when you carry out a survey of potential home buyers and discover that 62% of them have absolutely no intention whatsoever of buying a house in the next 18%.

Not a great headline.

The solution here is to flip the headline on it's head. Ignore the bad news completely, and make what you can of what's left. The minority who are "considering" buying a home.