Conservatives who denounced previous CBS poll now mum on latest poll showing same results
SUMMARY: A March 13 CBS News poll showed President Bush's approval rating at 34 percent -- unchanged from a February 28 CBS poll, despite a substantial increase in the number of Republicans polled relative to Democrats and independents. Conservative media figures attacked the earlier poll's validity, arguing that CBS' sample included a higher percentage of Democrats than they contended accurately reflected the general population. Now that CBS has released an updated poll showing that a roughly equal percentage of Democrats and Republicans produced the same approval rating for Bush, will the same media figures who denounced the prior poll report on the newest results?
A March 13 poll released by CBS News showed President Bush's approval rating at 34 percent, unchanged from CBS' previous poll released on February 28, despite a substantial increase in the number of Republicans polled relative to Democrats and independents. As Rolling Stone contributing editor Eric Boehlert noted on the Huffington Post weblog, despite "the nearly 30 percent increase in Republicans, [and] the 10 percent decrease in Democrats" in the new CBS poll, Bush's approval numbers "did not budge one inch." Upon the earlier poll's release, as Media Matters for America noted, conservative media figures attacked the poll's validity, arguing that CBS' sample included a higher percentage of Democrats than they contended accurately reflected the general population. Boehlert noted that the "silence from the Republican noise machine has been deafening" since the updated poll's release.
As Media Matters noted, conservatives launched unfounded attacks on the February 28 CBS poll, which showed that Bush's approval rating had sunk to the lowest of his presidency. Republican strategist Richard A. Galen observed in a column for the conservative Cybercast News Service that the adjusted percentages in the poll -- 37 percent Democrats and 28 percent Republicans -- did in fact reflect the proportion of Democrats and Republicans in the general population. And pollster Mark Blumenthal noted on the Mystery Pollster weblog that, even if the sample were weighted to make it more closely reflect previous CBS poll samples, the results would likely be similar because of Bush's low approval among independents. As Mystery Pollster has also noted, CBS weights its polls based on demographics, not political affiliation.
Now that CBS has released an updated poll showing that a roughly equal percentage of Democrats and Republicans produces the same approval rating for Bush, those same media figures who denounced the prior poll have yet to report on the newest results.* Below are their prior denunciations:
- Rush Limbaugh, from the February 28 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show: "This is not representative of the -- of the population of the country in any way, shape, manner, or form. Nor is the fact that Bush has 34 percent. ... You just know that's not possible. It simply isn't possible." During the March 14 broadcast of his radio show, Limbaugh again referred to CBS' "bugged poll" showing a Bush approval rating of 34 percent.
- Fox News host Sean Hannity, from the February 28 edition of Hannity & Colmes: "Look at, for example, you have these polls that came out today in CBS. And if you look at the headline, it says, "Bush lowest number in his presidency." The first thing we find out that nearly two to one they polled Democrats."
- Fox News host Brit Hume, from February 28 edition of Special Report with Brit Hume: "Yes, there's good reason to be skeptical of this CBS poll. It's wildly oversampled Democrats, it appears, anyway."
- Fox News host John Gibson, from the February 28 edition of The Big Story with John Gibson: "A new CBS News poll puts the president's job approval number at an all-time low, 34 percent. Of course, it's weighted with more Democrats, so you've got to take that into account."
* Search of Nexis transcripts for "Hume/Gibson/Hannity and Bush and poll"; "Hume/Gibson/Hannity and Bush and approval"
These same media figures are also ignoring that several other polls have now come out with the same or even lower approval for the President, like this one just released by the Pew Research Center, which has Bush at just 33% approval.
[link to people-press.org]
Thats it Repukes -- your days are almost over. You can't spin your way out of this mess.
I'd like to believe you, but I doubt it.
I was watching the head of the RNC making a speech to a fairly large crowd. When he said that broadcast TV News viewership was down and that Talk Radio listenership and Internet blogging was up, the crowd cheered rather loudly.
(I'm not sure what he/they think about blogging though.)
The more and more conservatives swallow the "Liberal Media" myth, the more and more "Family" organizations influence the Media, the more and more Congress control (give control of) the Media rules and regulations, the less and less people hear the truth.
the co-opted media has shilled and snowjobbed for Bush tirelessly for the last 5 years and the yet public still sees through the charade.
We, the People, aren't quite as stupid as Rove seems to think!
The Republican bobble heads of Fox are crafty. Don't lose faith that they'll find a way to spin the poll and shoot it full of holes while it's not looking. They just need the heat to blow over and let it fester in peoples' minds a little bit since there's no immediate 'easy out'.
does it seem that the amount of misinformation seems to have DRASTICALLY increased in terms of daily posts at MMFA over the last couple of months? Am I imagining things? Or has anyone else noticed this? It sure seems that the righties are in a full court press right now on the propaganda front.
The number of nauseating Chris Mathew's pieces alone is through the roof. There's definitely a concerted effort -- or damage control... whatever you want to call it.
I've noticed an increase as well.
Maybe it's simply an attempt by the mainstream media to appear "fair and balanced", since they are being forced to cover a host of Bush and Republican scandals, from Abramoff, to Plamegate, to spying, to the ports deal. They don't want to appear to be picking on Republicans, so go out of their way to present Republican talking points involving those stories.
I'd like to hope that is all it is, because the alternative (that there is a concerted effort by the upper management at every major media conglomerate to spin stories to support the right-wing position) is a hell of a lot worse.
I think it's pretty clear that the rise in incidents of misinformation seems to be directly proportional to the rapid-fire number of political disasters eminating from the Administration and the Republicans in Congress. What is especially frustrating, however, is that even though we have the Bushies in full meltdown mode on a number of fronts, the MSM seems to be perpetually hell-bent on whitewashing the situation (especially the broadcast media).
Exactly what has to happen in order for the American MSM to sound the alarm that things are really going badly? From the war in Iraq to our increasingly autocratic executive branch, from our disasterous foreign policy failures to the endless lies and obfuscation this Administration, we are living in a time to which future history books will have to devote entire chapters. Yet our supposedly world-class free press is either completely asleep at the wheel or engaged in laughable spin at the behest of the Administration.
Call me strident, but I think every journalist in this country should be absolutely embarassed of their profession at this point. It's pretty sad that at a time in history when the American people crucially need an engaged, active, and independent press, the MSM is an utter failure.
......a majority of the media in America still professes a "Liberal Media" in control.......................
that the number of items on MMFA has at least doubled since, say, late December/early January?? They must be getting desperate.
Could that be the reason? Is the same amount of misinformation still out there, but more of it is picked up now?
get a paycheck from Roger Ailes and probably participate in daily staff meetings, ...............together.
Read 'em and weep, boys.
Even id you took the "democratically weighted" poll, gave the overage to favor Bush, he would not have reached 40%. I love watching these morons going down in flames.
"Even id" should read "even if"
Fox News seeks a sensational murder, preferably involving a black male parolee killing an attractive white woman, to distract viewers long enough for the President's poll numbers to rise again, if ever. Think OJ. In the alternative, any story on Michael Jackson will do.
Reporting will be fair and balanced; criminals will be paid off at the Abramoff or Iraqi journalist rate, whichever is dirtier. Call The O'Reilly Factor and ask for Big Tony.
Is skewed by the earlier one. By intentionally skewing their poll, they emboldened the enemy abroad which leads to lower poll numbers which further emboldens the enemy. Clearly, these polls are proof that CBS and the left wants to see troops killed and America defeated.
(/snark)
try as you may to link this to the troops cause thats all you can spin The numbers dont lie
I was kidding. See the "(/snark)" tag at the end of it?
I guess maybe I shouldn't blame you. After, I probably sounded exactly like Sean Hannity right there.
Using punctuation may have thrown him off.
......the War against Terrorism is over, the Iraq Civil War is beginning, just like John Murtha said. If we don't pull out soon, a lot more USA soldiers will die and be mutilated for nothing, other than having reelected George W..............
for changing the republican/democrat ratio for no reason at all. This means that from now on, and thanks to these Conservative loudmouths, CBS will release polls in which Republicans are OVERREPRESENTED. MMFA notes that the 37-28 democrat/republican ratio was accurate, yet CBS unexplainably split party affiliation in half. Why? What all this means is that Bush's approval is probably EVEN LESS than 34%, since CBS distorted the party affiliation numbers in America today. I demand an article criticizing CBS's poll, regardles of the result.
Further proof that CBS caved to LImbaugh and co.'s unfounded criticizm.
of propagandists and corporate shills.
would hesitate at all to corrupt the polling processes, just as they have corrupted the voting process... and just about every other institution they could get their hands on???
I always assume a probability of a right-wing slant to the numbers to begin with.
.........along with getting the Polls right, we now need to assure that the Diebold Machines are outlawed, and there is a Paper Trail for every ballot cast in November. Then the Votes will actually reflect the Polls.............................
when Average Joe Republican wakes up to the obvious fact that the Bush Regime, Fox Opinion, and a certain handful of talk-radio right-wing talking-heads........DON'T.......and I repeat.......DON'T represent:
AVERAGE REPUBLICANS!!
Now I consider myself a Progressive liberal with a few moderate views......and I have (over my life) met, worked with, and have spoken at length with many self-proclaimed Republicans......(this includes these last several years of the right-wing extremists taking control of the media and the greater DC area) and I have to tell you......
Many of them have expressed embarrasment over everything that has gone on since the attempted impeachment of Clinton!
They still believe in whatever it was that the Average Joe Republican stands for, and quite a few of them have said that this regime and the right-wing fanatics of the cable media don't REPRESENT them!
These clowns ONLY represent those that have money to grease their hands with, power to hand over, their crony friends, government positions for unqualified cronies!
A prime example is Chertoff (Homeland Sec), Clarance Thomas(SCOTUS), Rummy (exactly how is a guy that never served in the military qualified to be Sec of Def?), Bush himself (any of you Bush defenders actully do an independant bio on this bum?)
I REPEAT......THESE PEOPLE HAVE DONE TO REPUBLICANISM AND CONSERVATIVISM AS CERTAIN ELEMENTS OF THE MUSLIM WORLD HAVE DONE TO ISLAM......THEY HAVE TURNED IT INTO SOMETHING UGLY AND DESPICABLE!!
but I'm afraid nobody has corrupted conservativism -- it pretty much revealed itself to be what it really is: facism in new clothing.
Crummy Rummy, unlike the rest of the Halliburton/Exxon warriors in office, did serve, just not in combat: "Mr. Rumsfeld attended Princeton University on academic and NROTC scholarships (A.B., 1954) and served in the U.S. Navy (1954-57) as an aviator and flight instructor. In 1957, he transferred to the Ready Reserve and continued his Naval service in flying and administrative assignments as a drilling reservist until 1975. He transferred to the Standby Reserve when he became Secretary of Defense in 1975 and to the Retired Reserve with the rank of Captain in 1989.
Which goes to show that one can avoid combat in Korea by going to Princeton on a Naval scholarship, competently fly a jet, and still be a totally incompetent, arrogant, ruthlessly vindictive politician (who wanted desperately to be President) that sends young folks to their death and orders the horrors of war without having ever been there.
I can't throw stones, ROTC and an assignment in Korea kept me away from the fray from 65-72, but I'm not trying to start a war for bases in the Mid East, either.
you were being facetious and I stupidly missed it, in which case I profusely apologize and self-administer forty lightweight wrist slaps with a ruler.
Citing low approval ratings for the commander in chief only helps the terrorists win. Opinion polls are treasonous, at least until Bush's popularity goes up again.
that the 66 percent of the people participating in the polls saying they disapprove of Bush's handling of his office are traitors. By extension, anyone that votes for a Democrat because the Republicans insist on backing everything this poor excuse for a President (on all levels, not just Iraq) has done, must be a traitor too. Say, did you volunteer for service in Iraq yet, so as to keep the all those terrorists at bay - you know, the ones that attacked the World Trade Center after Sadam hired them to bomb the U.S.?
"Now that CBS has released an updated poll showing that a roughly equal percentage of Democrats and Republicans produced the same approval rating for Bush, will the same media figures who denounced the prior poll report on the newest results?"
The answer is: NO
The current talking point would be useless at that point and reality would sink in.
Reality must be avoided at all costs.
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
The Right Wing Media pundocricy manipulate everything to prove their insane points of view. They attack every bit of data that goes against their arguments and attack every person who goes against their point of view.
They always, always say those kinds of things quoted above about polls they don't like, even especially loudly and more vociferous for polls that provide evidence against them.
They will also just come up with another poll of their own later to support themselves.
(Not all polls are valid and polls can be easily misinterpreted -- those on the "right" as those on the "left". Just like those "studies show" arguments.)
why everybody is hiding from Feingold right now. I think maybe all of the prominent Senate Democrats are privately geeful that he had the audacity to say what the rest of them are afraid to say, purely from the perspective of political exploitation. They want the old formula for the Dems - usurped by Rove - to bring a coalition of voters with opinions ranging all over the place (from impeach the bastard to gosh his economic policy isn't sufficiently isolationist) to bring in a Dem majority that can then change a few things. Not enough things. Not Exon, not corruption, but maybe look after the human beings making less that 7 figures a year. But that raises the question: if conservatives are mum on the polls and the Dem leaders are mum on things like criminal presidential conduct, can we expect less warm air from DC? Not.