Fox News chief White House correspondent Carl Cameron used poll data deceptively in an attempt to claim public support for President Bush's proposal to partially privatize Social Security. On the May 31 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, Cameron said: “For months, critics, mostly Democrats, have said the president's Social Security reform proposals are all but dead. But the latest polls show 53 percent think Social Security is in crisis or serious trouble. Another 36 percent see some trouble.”

But results from the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll (pdf), conducted May 12-16, indicate that even though the public believes Social Security faces difficulties, the public does not support Bush's plan for the program. When asked, "[D]o you think that it is a good idea or a bad idea to change the Social Security system to allow workers to invest their Social Security contributions in the stock market?," 56 percent of respondents said it is a “bad idea,” while only 36 percent called it a “good idea.”