Alan Mutter of Newsosaur shares his skepticism over a recent survey of 500 newspaper publishers.

In it, the publishers polled believe advertising sales will only drop 0.2% in 2010 after a 28.4% drop in 2009. Even the poll author doesn’t believe it.

Rationals for the irrational exuberance? Among our favorites:

“Optimism is better than slitting your wrists.”

The full post is here.