Fox's Juan Williams repeated NY Times' misrepresentation of Clinton approval rating

On the January 21 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday, National Public Radio senior correspondent and Fox News contributor Juan Williams repeated The New York Times' misrepresentation of a new Washington Post/ABC News poll, in which 54 percent of respondents said they had a favorable impression of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY). On a different question, as The Washington Post reported on January 21, "[t]he poll showed her the favorite of 41 percent of Democrats, giving her more than double the support of any of her potential rivals." Williams incorrectly stated, as the Times itself did on January 21, that the poll shows Clinton with a 41-percent approval rating.

From the January 21 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday:

WILLIAMS: Well, I mean -- to me, it's -- you know -- what's interesting is everybody knows who Hillary Clinton is. There's no secrets there. You spoke of baggage, [host] Chris [Wallace]. I mean, you got to -- when you compare the ideas -- I think it's like 41 percent in the last Washington Post poll that -- you know -- her approval rating, but it's 100 percent that know Hillary Clinton. So, what is that disconnect?

What is going on there and why is it that Hillary Clinton -- even though she far outpaces Barack Obama, John Edwards, and the like -- why is it that people still have the strong emotional response? Is it about Bill Clinton? I think it is. I think it's about Bill Clinton. I think it's about what happened in the scandals. I think it goes back to the health care controversy early on, when she was given authority, and the sense that she has -- she lives in a bubble and is very, you know, sort of intellectual, limited group of people that have influence over her.

Now, on the other hand, I think, you know, when it comes to Iraq, she has been running a moderate course and so, some who are on the left of the Democratic Party actually see her as too political, too soft on Iraq, too soft on President Bush, but that might be the reason that she could actually get elected.

From the January 21 New York Times article:

Several New York and Hollywood donors offered a similar assessment: they liked Mrs. Clinton as a senator, but worried that her rating in a new Washington Post/ABC News Poll released Saturday was at 41 percent, despite having nearly 100 percent name recognition.

From the January 16-19 Washington Post/ABC News poll, in which a random national sample of 1,000 adults was asked: "[D]o you have a favorable or unfavorable impression of (NAME)?"

The poll then asked of respondents who said they leaned Democratic: "If the 2008 Democratic presidential primary or caucus in your state were being held today, and the candidates were: (Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama, John Kerry, Al Gore, Wesley Clark, Tom Vilsack, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Dennis Kucinich, or Mike Gravel), for whom would you vote?"

*= less than 0.5 percent

—S.P.