Fri, Oct 22, 2004 7:51pm ET

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MSNBC identified guest Luntz as a "Republican pollster"; but he's still touting skewed voter studies

Republican pollster Frank Luntz returned to MSNBC on October 22, three weeks after the network dropped him from their presidential debate coverage following a complaint from Media Matters for America. For each of Luntz's three separate appearances on MSNBC News Live, the anchors accurately identified him as a "Republican pollster"; MSNBC anchors and commentators had previously failed repeatedly to identify the pollster's partisan ties. Luntz presented swing voter studies that were skewed in favor of President George W. Bush over Senator John Kerry.

In his first October 22 appearance, Luntz analyzed voters' reactions to three presidential campaign ads: one positive Kerry-Edwards '04 ad and two Bush-Cheney '04 ads -- one positive for Bush and one negative against Kerry. While claiming to compare "swing Bush voters" with "swing Kerry voters," Luntz actually compared Republicans' reactions to the ads with the combined reactions of Democrats and Independents, as the on-screen text indicated.

Luntz appeared on MSNBC two more times on October 22; each time, he compared Republicans' reactions with the combined reactions of Democrats and Independents. In his second and third appearance, he compared voters' reactions to speeches by Kerry and Bush from the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. These comparisons were a reprisal of the convention coverage Luntz provided for MSNBC, which MMFA noted at the time. He also compared reactions to statements Kerry and Bush made in the presidential debates.

As MMFA has documented, aside from his partisan Republican ties, Luntz has demonstrated dubious ethical standards that have prompted recurring questions about his credibility.

Luntz is CEO and president of The Luntz Research Companies.

—A.S.

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