The actual press release is here and has exactly the same numbers. My guess is they asked "Do you think Rihanna/Chris/both were responsible?" as three separate yes-or-no questions, and a lot of people said yes to more than one.

Which would mean the 46% isn't the number that thought Rihanna was *solely* responsible. At least some of them must have interpreted the question as "Does she have some responsibility?".

In fact, since 52% think both were responsible, that leaves only 48% to split between thinking one of Chris or Rihanna is solely responsible, or to answer "don't know". Assuming a lot of people blame solely Chris, the number that blame solely Rihanna must be well under 20%. But that wouldn't have made such a good headline.

And if the question design is this crappy (or deliberately manipulated), the sampling methodology and interview technique are not to be trusted either, so all of the numbers are highly suspect.

The press release that cillit bang links to also says "females were no less likely than males to come to Rihanna’s defense".

No less likely. So females were just as likely to defend Rihanna. Yeah, I don't think that's what they meant either.

154% of people in this thread believe that this poll is stinkier than a pile of stinky poop. The other 86% were no less likely to think that the poll was poopy.

Has anyone established that the story is even true?

The story that he beat her up? That has been verified by police photos showing her injuries, as far as I know, but I haven't really been paying that much attention. I had never even heard of him before this, and had only the vaguest idea who she was. Which, I guess is why arsey thinks it might be a publicity stunt, but it's a really weird (and painful!) one if it is.

Ahh, didn't know that. All I know are a couple headlines. I had not heard of either of them before this. I get the bulk of my news now from CNN's twitter feed.

Wasn't Rhianna in a Best Buy Commercial? I blame Circuit City.

The whole response to this business has been pretty awful. I read another article, out of Chicago I think, where teenage girls were saying how Rihanna probably asked for it, probably was on his back, etc. It just made me feel so sad.

I saw a snip of some (male) comedian, asked his opinion by pararazzi, joking, "That's nothing; you should see how many times I've beat up my wife."

Just not funny.

I had never heard of them before this story started appering everywhere and then a photo circulated around the Internet showing her injured but that was shown to be photoshopped. I'm still not sure what's real and what's not. Either way it's ugly and sad.

ah! I have no idea. The last I read anything about it, the photo was supposed to have been unofficially "leaked" by someone in the PD, omg, omg. I didn't know about the photoshop theory, which, if true, may they all fucking burn in celebrity hell - which is just like everyone else's hell, except that they while they suffer the flames of eternal damnation, they are old, fat, wrinkled (and pimply at the same time, due to the wonders of metaphysics), smell bad, wear WalMart clothes, and nobody pays them any attention. And they only have each other to keep them company.

I thought everyone knew who she was, I haven't been able to escape the girl since Umbrella. She's everywhere. Him on the other hand? Never heard of. Until he beat her up (I reckon he did beat her up.)

I was surprised to find out that Rihanna actually has some good songs (Not Umbrella) when I heard her on the radio recently. I've heard Chris' songs and they're not my style- slow jam kinda stuff. He is a good dancer though.

I hope he still gets tried and punished even though she isn't pressing charges.
Aside from it just being terrible to punch your partner, it would be such a bad precedent to set and an awful message to send their teen and younger fans.

I don't know where the "shown to be photoshopped" thing comes in. The LAPD basically conceded that the photo was leaked from an ongoing domestic violence investigation, and they started an internal probe to find out how the leak happened.

I don't think that I had heard of these two before this stuff and only have a vague idea of who they are now.

More about the photo(s).

leaked cop-photo & the photoshopped photo

I don't know why people think that scolding Rihanna is a good thing to do or helpful to anyone.

Duh, Claudia, she's the woman -- she's responsible for this whole thing, obvy. How dare she interfere with his rising fame! She's going to ruin that poor man!

Thought experiment: Let's say Rihanna freaked out over a text message from another woman, as was alleged. Let's say she slapped him, even punched him. He has training in martial arts. Don't most of those teach defensive moves first and foremost? He should be able to deflect her blows and restrain her. She's about my size - 100 lbs - and he's bigger (and younger and stronger) than my husband, who has no martial arts background. My husband can very easily pin me down (for fun, wink wink), so even if she attacked him first, there is no reason whatsoever that he had to attack back in such a manner.