Tue, Oct 19, 2004 1:11pm ET

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Incomprehensible: CNN again excluded polls favorable to Kerry from "comprehensive" polling overview

For the second straight day, CNN selectively reported recent presidential polling results. Although the network misleadingly dubbed its October 19 report on recent polls a "comprehensive overview," CNN Live Today host Daryn Kagan omitted results that are more favorable to Senator John Kerry and instead focused on results that show a lead for President George W. Bush.

From the October 19 edition of CNN Live Today:

KAGAN: As the election draws closer, the race appears deadlocked. According to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, both Kerry and Bush are in a statistical tie among registered voters. Bush has a one-percentage-point lead among likely voters, but that is within the margin of error. A comprehensive overview of five post-debate polls shows the Bush campaign having a bit more breathing room; it shows Bush with a four-percentage-point lead, just beyond the margin of error.

But there's nothing "comprehensive" about that "overview" of polls -- it excluded the most recent one, The New York Times/CBS News poll, which Kagan had just mentioned. Again: Kagan's "comprehensive" overview did not factor in a poll she had just told viewers about less than ten seconds earlier.

Kagan's "comprehensive" overview also omitted three other recent polls -- and, coincidentally, all three showed better results for Kerry, as Media Matters for America noted after a similar CNN report on October 18.

Kagan also claimed that Bush's lead in the "comprehensive overview" (of polls with results favorable to Bush) was, at four points, "just beyond the margin of error." But the on-screen graphic indicated that the "sampling error" was plus or minus four points, so even under her mistaken view of "margin of error," Bush's lead was just within that. In fact, margin of error applies to both Bush's total and Kerry's total. So Bush's lead is not "just beyond" the margin of error, or even "just within" it -- it is well within the margin of error.

—J.F.

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