NY Times' Seelye falsely claimed Clinton favorable ratings “never climbed higher” than 50 percent

Written by Sarah Pavlus

Published

In a post on the New York Times blog The Caucus, Katharine Q. Seelye falsely claimed that Hillary Rodham Clinton's “favorable ratings reached a peak of 50 [percent] in 1998 during her husband's impeachment. They have never climbed higher, as measured by The Times and CBS.” In fact, a January 1999 CBS News poll found that Clinton had a favorable rating of 55 percent. Additionally, other polls from the same period found Clinton's favorable rating rising as high as 67 percent, and polls from other organizations show her favorable rating has topped 50 percent in 2007.

In an August 16 post on the New York Times political blog The Caucus, reporter Katharine Q. Seelye falsely claimed that Hillary Rodham Clinton's “favorable ratings reached a peak of 50 [percent] in 1998 during her husband's impeachment. They have never climbed higher, as measured by The Times and CBS, meaning that at no point since her emergence onto the national stage has more than half the public viewed her favorably.” In fact, a January 1999 CBS News poll found that Clinton had a favorable rating of 55 percent. Additionally, other polls from the same period found Clinton's favorable rating rising as high as 64 percent (ABC News/Washington Post, August 1998) and 67 percent (USA Today/Gallup, December 1998). Moreover, in polls by other news organizations -- including USA Today/Gallup and ABC News/Washington Post -- Clinton's favorable rating has exceeded 50 percent in 2007.

In her post, Seelye noted White House senior adviser Karl Rove's claim about Hillary Clinton that "[t]here's nobody who has ever won the presidency who started out in that kind of position." To rebut this claim, Seelye wrote: “In fact, Mrs. Clinton's husband was in that very position and did win.” But in rebutting Rove, Seelye understated Hillary Clinton's favorable ratings, in part by relying on a Times/CBS polling report that omitted the results of the January 1999 poll. Seelye also ignored the results of other polls, from which the Times' polling results differed significantly. Seelye noted that “the two news organizations [The New York Times and CBS News] began polling about Mrs. Clinton in 1992” and referred to a recent Times/CBS polling report that included a selection of Clinton's favorable ratings dating back to 1992, none of which were higher than 50 percent. The report appears to reference polls conducted jointly by the Times and CBS, plus polls conducted by either the Times or CBS. The polls that were conducted by just one organization appear to be denoted by a “NYT” or “CBS,” respectively. The front page of the report states, “All trends are from New York Times/CBS News polls unless otherwise noted.”

The Bulletin's Frontrunner, a publication that summarized media reports on politics, noted on January 6, 1999, that a CBS News poll of 1,175 adults conducted Jan. 3-4, 1999, (+/-3 percent) showed: “55% have a 'favorable' opinion of Hillary Rodham Clinton; 20% said 'unfavorable'; 17% were undecided; 7% 'haven't heard enough'; 1% refused to answer.” These results are also highlighted on the polling website PollingReport.com, under CBS News polling on Hillary Clinton.

Polls from other news organizations show that Hillary Clinton's favorable rating has topped 50 percent in 2007 and has topped 60 percent at other points in her public life:

  • According to a Newsweek poll conducted July 2-3, 56 percent of respondents had a favorable opinion of Clinton.
  • According to USA Today/Gallup polling, Clinton's favorable rating was at 58 percent in February 2007, 54 percent in March, and 53 percent in May. According to earlier USA Today/Gallup polling, Clinton's favorable rating was in the 60s throughout 1998 -- reaching 67 percent in December 1998.
  • According to a Diageo/Hotline poll conducted March 29-April 1, 53 percent of respondents had a favorable opinion of Clinton.
  • According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted January 16-19, 54 percent of respondents had a favorable opinion of Clinton. According to ABC/Washington polling from 1998, Clinton's favorable rating was in the 50s and 60s throughout that year -- reaching 64 percent in August 1998.