ABC News/Wash. Post withheld results of poll favorable to Obama
SUMMARY: ABC News and The Washington Post issued staggered releases of the results of their latest poll, withholding from their first release results favorable to Sen. Barack Obama, including the finding that 50 percent of registered voters would vote for Obama for president versus 42 percent for Sen. John McCain. The next day, the Post ran an article headlined "Poll Finds Voters Split on Candidates' Iraq-Pullout Positions," which did not mention Obama's 8-point lead over McCain. Later that day, ABC News and the Post issued a second release with additional poll results that stated: "Obama continues to hold most of the advantages in the presidential race."
In disclosing the results of their poll, conducted July 10-13, ABC News and The Washington Post issued staggered releases, withholding from their first release on July 14 poll results favorable to Sen. Barack Obama, including the finding that 50 percent of registered voters would vote for Obama "[i]f the 2008 presidential election were being held today" versus 42 percent who favored Sen. John McCain. A partial release of the results, "embargoed for release after 6:30 p.m. Monday, July 14, 2008," was titled "McCain Stays Competitive on Iraq; It's About More than Withdrawal" and disclosed the results of only 10 questions relating to foreign policy. Among the results, the release noted: 72 percent of respondents think McCain would be "a good commander-in-chief," compared with 48 percent for Obama; "50 percent of Americans prefer Obama's plan to withdraw most U.S. forces within 16 months of taking office," compared with 49 percent who side with McCain's position; 47 percent of respondents said they trust McCain more on Iraq, while 45 percent prefer Obama; and 51 percent of Americans "now say the U.S. campaign against the Taliban and al Qaeda there [in Afghanistan] has been unsuccessful." Following the July 14 release, ABCNews.com posted an analysis of only the foreign policy poll results under the headline "McCain Tops Obama in Commander-in-Chief Test; Stays Competitive on Iraq." Similarly, Time magazine senior political analyst Mark Halperin linked to the ABCNews.com analysis using the headline: "Poll: McCain Wins More Confidence as Commander in Chief." In a July 15 article headlined "Poll Finds Voters Split on Candidates' Iraq-Pullout Positions," the Post reported only the poll results disclosed in the first release. The article did not mention Obama's 8-point lead over McCain among registered voters on who they would vote for "[i]f the 2008 presidential election were being held today."
On July 15, the day after the initial release, ABC News and the Post issued a second release disclosing the results of 18 questions "embargoed for release after 5 p.m. Tuesday, July 15, 2008." Included in the release was the result that overall, Obama leads McCain by 8 percentage points among registered voters. Additionally, the release stated: "Obama continues to hold most of the advantages in the presidential race, in enthusiasm, levels of partisanship, personal qualities and trust on top domestic issues, notably No. 1, the economy; and he's improved in the past month among swing voter groups." The release noted that Obama leads McCain by 19 percentage points on the question of which candidate respondents "trust more to handle the economy."
what are you disputing in the above article?
Is there something in the drinking water at MM?
July 16, WaPo, PAGE A1: "Obama Leads by 8 Points In Poll: Economy Remains The Top Concern"
Gee, that sure looks like "conservative misinformation" to me! </sarc>
Why, if not for its brute dishonesty, would MM purposefully omit the fact that WaPo ran a huge FRONT-PAGE article with the screaming headline, "Obama Leads by 8 Points"?
MM owes its readers a correction - and some answers for its dishonesty!
MM makes NO MENTION of the front-page story on the 16th.
WaPo didn't "withhold" anything, and MM is being flat-out erroneous and/or dishonest.
You must be Science101's cousin or something, because you're dense just like he is.
On July 15, the day after the initial release, ABC News and the Post issued a second release disclosing the results of 18 questions "embargoed for release after 5 p.m. Tuesday, July 15, 2008."
And you want to claim that they didn't hold anything back? Do you know what "embargoed for release after Tuesday" means? It means they held something back!
Media Matters issue is that the news organizations held something back and didn't provide full details all at the same time. They released data that made McCain look good without telling the readers that in that very same poll, Obama held the lead in people who might vote in the election. Media Matters was 100% correct. The very first sentence in their summary explains this very well.
ABC News and The Washington Post issued staggered releases of the results of their latest poll, withholding from their first release results favorable to Sen. Barack Obama...
The withholding furthers the conservative agenda by making McCain look better than he should. It allowed others to comment upon that poll release and represent its results in a different way than they likely would have if they had seen the full results. The same group of people who gave McCain higher marks in some areas still said they'd vote for Obama over McCain. Giving us some results while withholding other results is a biased view of those first results!
Ummmm not so. I am as old as dirt and I have abandoned my interest in McCain. I chuckle at the name given by many, McSame and that refkects the truth that he is sucking up to Bush, the guy who allowed his supporters to run that disgusting ad about his "black daughter". He ignores their insult just to get Bush's hateful supporters to vote for him. That strategy does not bode well for him as far as his claimed integrio[ty goes..
Take a look at this great website to see just how huge the electoral gap is:
http://www.electoral-vote.com/
They take the average of all the latest state polls. Right now, Obama is ahead 320 to 204 with 14 ties.
My favorite is this one: http://www.electionprojection.com/index.shtml
It's run by a conservative, but I like his methodology and level of anaysis. He's got Obama up 311 to 227 in the EV.
How DARE you suggest such a thing?
Why, the audacity to even imply that Republicans couldn't come up with a way to overcome a large margin to steal an election is just...just...just plain impudent and disrespectful.
There is in fact mountains of evidence. But your job here is to be contrarian, so I'm not surprised to see you say that.
So what's new. We all know how biased the press and AP are.
They have made no attempt to hide their favortism towards
Mccain.
They distort, lie and ignore facts thinking the can fool us. They
insult our intelligence. Unfortunately some believe everything
they say. Fortunately, many of us don't.
The media, AP have long forgotten the meaning of integrity.
They are owned by and support corporate America, making, we
the people the victimns. Stand up America. Get the facts and
ignore their bias.
So the "News" media doesn't want to report accurate information that is contrary to what looks like someone's interests. It is amazing that rational people still rely on these news outlets for any kind of accurate information. Do we now question stories about tainted food and medicine? Would I rely on information from ABC/Post if I was worried about the safety of the food my family was eating?
Once you have an unreliable news source you have to be crazy to believe anything else they put out.
What am I missing?
When I follow the "poll" link in the first graf after the summary, I find question 7 showing Obama over McCain by 10 (i.e., most likely statistically significant, though neither subsample size nor MoE are given to allow verification of that) among "Net Leaned Vote, Registered Voters" and by 13 among "Net Leaned Vote, General Population":
Well...I always knew news orgs. probably did this. I have'nt seen a fox news poll in lord knows when (their internal poll probably shows Obama leading by a decent margin). Anywho, speaking of accurately reporting poll results, I noticed that the real clear politics site only list Sen. Obama's lead as only 3 pts in the recent ABC poll. I thought he lead McCain by 8 pts? Weird huh?
Polls Are Now Made To Order
First, a word to the arrogant. When MM decides to make a statement of wrong doing, there is a 90% chance it is true. There is nothing any one person possesses that gives them an above average ability to find their mistakes after two minutes of reading. Before you bless yourself with the credit for “getting them straight, you might want to consider you might be the one who is missing the point.
The ABC/WP polls seem to be a part of a conservative group of pollsters who are trying very hard to make this elections closer then it is. After any poll showing Barack Obama with a more then 3 point lead is released, Gallup, Rasmussen, CNN, USAtoday or ABC will release their poll showing a low lead for Obama. With a weeks observation, you can test my claim. These polls seem to be "made to order."
The standard attempt is to control the averages. As a result, Gallup releases under their name and then under Gallup/CNN ore Gallup/USAtoday. With any of the given combinations, they have kept Obama's lead less then the margin of error.
Real Clear politics is the front runner in presenting polls in a deceptive way. However, they are not the only one. It seems any presenting sites like Real Clear politics are guilty of presenting this phony polling reality.
Joseph
truthseeker77 keeps yammering on about an 8% lead.
It's an "8 point" lead so I have no idea what you're reading or talking about.
What is even more depressing is you seem to be just the kind of person dishonest pollsters cheat for. With a week's observation, anyone can see Gallup and Rasmussen polls are made to order. Real Clear polling averages are totally control by these two tracking polls. When other polling organizations attempt to contribute, they counter to keep Barack Obama's numbers as low as the current presenting groups would allow. If you look at the link, you will also notice that real clear will take whichever poll, register voters or likely voters, that makes John McCain look better. This happen with the ABC poll. The likely voter lead is 8 points for Obama. This move by Real Clear proves they lean toward conservative candidates.
Joseph
Why is certain media like the Post and ABC so biased against Obama? Do any legitimate journalists actually want McCain to become the president and the commander in chief of the military?
So, he was a POW - so where thousands of others. So he got into the naval academy thanks to his daddy and was commissioned thans to his granddaddy and his daddy. Ok, he finally grew up and was apparently a good pilot. But he wasn't involved in any war from the ground up and has zero credentials to be the military leader he claims to be.
Why do the media give him an edge he doesn't have?