RALEIGH — The Zogby organization has a new poll out on where viewers are getting their war news — and what their choice of network says about them.

This new survey of 1,011 likely voters nationwide found that two-thirds supported President Bush’s war policy in Iraq, perhaps the least surprising result. We are at war, after all, and Americans do tend to rally behind their forces once committed. Moreover, the bestial behavior of the Iraqi irregulars and Special Republican Guard thugs, essentially the Waffen SS and Gestapo of the Baath regime, has likely angered many Americans who previously had mixed emotions about the conflict. Indeed, Zogby found that the more coverage viewers watched, the more likely they were to support the policy — and that those who saw the images of the executed or tortured POWs were made more hawkish.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the survey, though, had to do with the network news coverage. Zogby asked viewers which network they were watching most. About 25 percent said CNN, followed by 22 percent for Fox News, 14 percent each for NBC and ABC, and 10 percent each for CBS and MSNBC. This is actually good news for NBC, since its two networks together were essentially matching CNN’s share.

Cross-tabulating the results, Zogby found “not surprisingly” that Fox News viewers were the most supportive of the war policy at 81 percent to 18 percent, followed by NBC viewers (71 percent to 28 percent). About two-thirds of the viewers of CNN, MSNBC, and ABC also supported the war.

And Dan Rather’s CBS? The least-watched network for war news also attract the least-enthusiastic audience, with fully 40 percent of the audience opposed.

Courage, Dan. Your audience may be the smallest, but I’m betting they are the grooviest, if you know what I mean.

Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation and publisher of Carolina Journal.