Angle selectively quoted polling data to assert “numbers look just as bad, if not worse, for some prominent Democrats” than for Bush

Fox News' Jim Angle misleadingly compared Bush's “approval rating” in a recent New York Times/CBS News poll to the “favorability rating[s]” of Sens. John Kerry and Hillary Rodham Clinton, noting that, while 31 percent of respondents approve of President Bush's job performance, just 26 percent hold a favorable view of Kerry and 34 percent hold a favorable view of Clinton. Angle neglected to mention that 55 percent of respondents view Bush unfavorably.


On the May 13 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, chief Washington correspondent Jim Angle selectively cited and distorted a May 4-8 New York Times/CBS News poll that found President Bush's approval rating falling to 31 percent to assert that “the numbers look just as bad, if not worse, for some prominent Democrats.” Angle misleadingly compared Bush's “approval rating” in the poll to the “favorability rating[s]” of Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), noting that, while 31 percent of respondents approve of Bush's job performance, just 26 percent hold a favorable view of Kerry and 34 percent hold a favorable view of Clinton. Although Bush's approval rating is at 31 percent, the poll found that his favorability rating stands at 29 percent. Moreover, while Angle noted that 38 percent of respondents hold an unfavorable view of Kerry and 35 percent view Clinton unfavorably, he neglected to mention that 55 percent have an unfavorable view of Bush.

From The New York Times/CBS News poll:

PRESIDENTIAL JOB APPROVAL

Approve

31

Disapprove

63

VIEWS OF ...

Favorable

Unfavorable

Undecided/no opinion

Hillary Clinton

34

35

32

John Kerry

26

38

34

George W. Bush

29

55

16

From Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:

ANGLE: A new Harris poll puts the president's job approval rating at 29 percent -- the lowest number of his presidency. The low approval caps a week of negative polls for the president, but the numbers look just as bad, if not worse, for some prominent Democrats. While a New York Times poll released earlier this week found that 31 percent of Americans approve of the president, just 26 percent hold a favorable view of 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry while 38 percent have an unfavorable opinion; and 34 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of New York Senator Hillary Clinton compared to 35 percent who view her unfavorably.