‘An Especially Amateurish Example of Media Bias’ from CNN
“The Republican Party is split right down the middle between Tea Party movement supporters and those who do not support the two-and-a-half-year-old movement, according to a new national survey,” a Thursday CNN.com “Political Ticker” post asserted in recounting the findings of a CNN/ORC poll which were cited on air by both Wolf Blitzer and John King.
CNN relayed how the survey discovered “roughly half (49 percent) of Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP say they support the tea party movement or are active members, with roughly half (51 percent) saying that they have no feelings one way or another about the tea party or that they oppose the movement.”
In his “Best of the Web Today” compilation on Friday for the Wall Street Journal online, James Taranto wondered: “See the problem?” He explained:
They’re arbitrarily lumping voters who are neutral about the Tea Party with opponents in order to swell the latter’s numbers. One could just as easily write: “An overwhelming 74% of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents either support the Tea Party movement or have no feelings one way or another. Just 26% oppose it.”
Taranto cautioned: “Those numbers, we should add, are hypothetical: The ‘full results’ don't even give the actual breakdown.”)
On air, Wolf Blitzer repeated the slanted formulation, announcing on Thursday’s (September 15) The Situation Room:
A new CNN/ORC International poll is revealing that the GOP is split right down the middle when it come to the blossoming Tea Party movement. According to the survey, 49 percent of those who lean Republican either support the movement or are active members, 51 percent feel indifferent or oppose it all together.
Toward the end of CNN’s next show early Thursday evening, John King USA, the host of the same name reported:
Our new CNN/ORC poll out tonight shows a fascinating divide. A Republican Party split smack right down the middle between those who support the Tea Party and those who don't. Look at this. Forty-nine percent of Republicans and independents who lean Republican either support the Tea Party or are active members. Fifty- one percent of these voters either have no feelings of the Tea Party or oppose the movement.
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Comments
What?
Submitted by ThePickle on Sat, 09/17/2011 - 6:37pm.
What? ............WHAT!?!
Come on , everyone knows (another favorite BS claim often used by the left) that being "indifferent" is EXACTLY the same as "opposing".
What you Tea Party folks don't understand plain English?
Jeez!
Is that like
Submitted by gfrrman on Sat, 09/17/2011 - 6:48pm.
voting "present"?
g
Definition
Submitted by DontFeedTheTrolls on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 11:26am.
Voting 'present' really means 'I'm too damn stupid to know which way to vote on this one.'
Oh,
Submitted by texasborngranny on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 11:59am.
I thought it meant, "I will not vote yea or nay, because if I did someone might try to hold me accountable for that vote in the future."
CNN Bias Thaddeus McCotter The Media & Reindeer Games.
Submitted by laree on Sat, 09/17/2011 - 6:41pm.
Why is the media raising Rep Michelle Bachmann's profile, but not Rep Thaddeus McCotter? They are both running for President of the United States. Is the media trying to pick our next President for us, like they picked our last?
Thaddeus McCotter The Media & Reindeer Games.
REINDEER GAMES: "Refers to any fun activities which are enjoyed only by members of a clique, the fact of which is often purposefully made obvious to anyone existing outside of said clique in order to make them feel inadequate and left-out. Refers to "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer".
The system is open to anyone
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 2:55am.
The system is open to anyone and it favors those who can persuade others to support him. Cotter has obviously not made his case for enough people. Life Sucks then you die.
First you pay taxes
Submitted by hbnolikeee on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 8:28am.
and then you die.
Then they tax you again.
Submitted by Dan Diego on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 9:09am.
Then they tax you again.
Death & Taxes
Submitted by phryingphish on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 9:38am.
"Now my advice for those who die,
Declare the pennies on your eyes." - George Harrison
No You Pay Taxes Then You Die and Then You Keep Paying Taxes
Submitted by Avitar on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 11:36pm.
They are going to charge you taxes after you die. Otherwise they would not be so anquious to implement Obamacare.
Just because someone uses a
Submitted by motherbelt on Sat, 09/17/2011 - 7:07pm.
Just because someone uses a statistic doesn't mean the number is significant.
I once read a report where someone said that a particular type of cancer was so serious that one in five people who get it will die.
Makes it sound really bad, doesn't it? But who, if they had cancer, would not be glad to hear that they had an 80% chance of survival?
Geeze you think thats bad, I
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 2:58am.
Geeze you think thats bad, I happen to know for a fact that death is 100 percent fatal and only two in mankind have escaped its grasp.
New study at 6 on ABC..
Submitted by ant on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 3:32am.
You mean if I quit eating french fries I'm still going to expire? I've been lied to, I tell ya.
Statistics are like bikinis
Submitted by Dave81 on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 8:48am.
Statistics are like bikinis: what they reveal is shocking, but what they conceal is vital!
As a mathmatician...
Submitted by loxmyth on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 9:03am.
...let me afirm that numbers never, ever lie....but liers do in fact use numbers. The problem with percents is they become very vague. There is currently an ad by a car company touting that they, unlike some car companies, are running at 100% production, so this, somehow, means you can easily get one of their cars. The problem is they don't tell what 100% means. If that mean they can build 2 cars per month, it doesn't go far compared with the company that can build 200 cars, but is only running at 10%, or making 20.
The example I learned many, many years ago goes: A bread company touts in it's ads that it sold twice as many loaves of bread last month as the month before. Sounds like a banner month of sales? What they DON'T say is the month before they sold one loaf of bread! So this month they sold two.
While i am on a numbers rant...it is absolutely, totally, impossible, for someone to give 110% effort on something. 100% is the totality of what there is. To give more than 100% would mean that the 100% wasn't in fact 100%.
One of my favorites
Submitted by Model850 on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 2:27pm.
In addition to your examples one I recall is the ad for the car company that boasted (paraphrasing), "Over 90% of all our cars registered in the last 20 years are still on the road today."
What they don't tell you is how many of the cars have been registered in just the last 5 years or less, which is likely a significant percentage of the total number.
All of which supports the trope "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics."
Now before anyone "lectures" me about the worth of statistics let me say that they can be useful and valuable, as long as one has all the data used to compile them to properly analyze the conclusions.
My rule about statistics
Submitted by Blonde on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 2:55pm.
Start with the best numbers you can get....raw data.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
Good stuff
Submitted by ljacone on Mon, 09/19/2011 - 10:58am.
Great points about liars and numbers.
"While i am on a numbers rant...it is absolutely, totally, impossible, for someone to give 110% effort on something. 100% is the totality of what there is. To give more than 100% would mean that the 100% wasn't in fact 100%."
Yes, but how does that relate to having a Laser-like focus on something? With you as a mathematician and me as an engineer maybe we can put our heads together and figure out how that works exactly.
Awww. . .
Submitted by moski on Sat, 09/17/2011 - 7:31pm.
Isn't it cute how they lie to themselves so they won't feel so bad.
I dig it!!
My thoughts exactly.
Submitted by ant on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 3:24am.
Their falsehoods in these regards are to assuage their fears at the end of their chance to 'fundamentally transform' the hateful Amerikkka.
GIGO: garbage in - garbage out.
Submitted by drsamherman on Sat, 09/17/2011 - 7:38pm.
They ask the question akin to "have you stopped beating your wife?" and then hawk it for propaganda purposes? John King should sue CNN. Somewhere in his contract there has to be language that the network cannot say or do anything deleterious to his public image. Reading that idiotic poll presentation certainly makes him look like a bigger fool than he already is.
Given his performance on CNN...
Submitted by falcon on Mon, 09/19/2011 - 11:31am.
...what makes you think he actually *read* his contract?
“I will not stand by and watch this great country destroy itself under mediocre leadership, that drifts from one crisis to the next, eroding our national will and purpose.” – Ronald Reagan, July 17, 1980.
Nothing to see here people.
Submitted by Liberallies on Sat, 09/17/2011 - 7:38pm.
Nothing to see here people. Stations like CNN do not have an agenda. No sir they don't!!!!
They should ask Democrats "Do
Submitted by forest on Sat, 09/17/2011 - 7:56pm.
They should ask Democrats "Do you consider yourself to be Liberal, moderate or Conservative?" Lump the neutral people in with the conservatives, and you'll find the the great schism in the Democrat Party breaks about 70% anti-liberal.
Never mind the fact that there are millions of Democrat...
Submitted by OxyCon on Sat, 09/17/2011 - 7:56pm.
Never mind the fact that there are millions of Democrat...and Independent Teapartiers.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/127181/tea-partiers-fairly-mainstream-demogra...
Sure, just like there is an
Submitted by BD on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 9:46am.
Sure, just like there is an occasional democrat who is interested in national defense. But over time you gotta admit they have dwindled in number.
THe nation has become stratified over the past thrity years. THose with strong views regarding the nation more easily find homes in the two political parties. Those without such views simply call themselves independants or moderates.
The Republicans are always...
Submitted by sherlock1 on Sat, 09/17/2011 - 8:37pm.
If you believe the MSM, the Republicans are always on the edge of a complete party breakdown over something or other, and the Dems are solidly unified. Reality is not something the media seeks to report - it is something they seek to control. One of the only good things about Obama is that his failure will help convince even more people to be highly skeptical of what the talking heads tell them is the truth.
Sherlock, thank you. I am
Submitted by PeskyDane on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 7:01am.
Sherlock, thank you. I am old enough to remember when the networks all said that the split between the country club Republicans and the upstart religious conservatives all but guarenteed a shoe-in for Carter's re-election.
the msm is scared....try
Submitted by gopsteve on Sat, 09/17/2011 - 9:36pm.
the msm is scared...
The Tea Party
Submitted by Hausmaus on Sat, 09/17/2011 - 10:04pm.
The Tea Party is an American State of Mind. It is not beholden to anyone, because its focus is primarily on the foundation and constitutionality of our nation it is strictly what you see, is what you get. Liberals do not understand that the Tea Party can be so potent, and yet be without a leader. Americans from all walks of life, all colors, denominations, likes, dislikes, unhyphenated Americans, we are the Tea Party. You can think, belief, imagine, whatever in the world you desire, but you are still part of this American State of Mind, the Tea Party. One of the worst statements that can ever be said of The Tea Party, is to consider it to be racist. Those who make statements like this are either terrified of this movement, or have absolutely no clue whatsoever what The Tea Party is about. The Tea Party unlike the Black Panthers, Greens, Democrats, Republicans, etc...etc...absorbs the greater number of Americans, because its greater common denominator is you, and me. The Tea Party is the only party in America that is people oriented, all the others depend on an artificial apparatus to make themselves belivable.
And further
Submitted by hbnolikeee on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 8:35am.
it's amorphous nature makes attacking TP people always vague and full of easily refutable allegations. The thugs in charge have a much rougher time drawing a bead on someone if they don't know who what or where. They waste a great deal of energy and only expose their deceitful ways. Sounds right to me.
That relates to what I've been saying all along...
Submitted by falcon on Mon, 09/19/2011 - 11:37am.
...there is NO SUCH THING as the TEA Party. The Left have tried to create this "party" in an attempt to demonize, belittle, and destroy the credibility of individual, hard-working Americans who simply want government to get out of their way so they can do what they do best. The so-called "TEA Party" is nothing more than an idea (thank you, Rick Santelli), a belief, a commitment to re-taking our nation back from those who have stolen it for their own nefarious purposes, which include the destruction of American sovereignty and economic might and the homogenization of the world into one, faceless, over-arching oligarchy run by the elites for the elites.
The "TEA Party" could be said to have its roots in the American colonies and their desire to escape the tyrannical rule of King George III, and the "shot heard 'round the world" at Breed's Hill. It never truly went away, but was strengthened over the past three years during the current administration. Indeed, if you read the Declaration of Independence with an eye toward today's events, you'll find that much of the language is still relevant.
“I will not stand by and watch this great country destroy itself under mediocre leadership, that drifts from one crisis to the next, eroding our national will and purpose.” – Ronald Reagan, July 17, 1980.
So those who are undecided
Submitted by eaglewingz08 on Sat, 09/17/2011 - 10:31pm.
So those who are undecided about Obama should actually be lumped as being against him, or with those who disapprove of him.
Gee, wonder what those new numbers would show about Mr. Obama and his policies?
Invertebrates
Submitted by Crash on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 8:10am.
Honestly, what is it about undecided - don't knowers ... have they just awaken out of a coma?
inane
Submitted by GerryC on Sat, 09/17/2011 - 11:00pm.
Every study is unanimous. Every person killed in an airplane accident has drank cola, ate fruits and potatoes, and drank water at some time. I also heard that the Tea Party drinks water too. They are despicable, I tell Ya!!! Conclusion, Don't drink cola, eat watermelon, or drink water, cause you will die on an airplane if you do, and wind up a Tea party dummy.
And W made them do all of these horrible things!, because he wanted to distract you from his riding his bike on his farm!! LOL (sarcasm)!
In the meantime, the left is showing us who they are, and America does not like what they see. Damn them water drinking, cola sipping, potato and watermelon eating tea-baggers!!!
Supporting the Tea Party
Submitted by Nick Shaw on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 12:33am.
Let's just say they are reporting correctly. Other polls have shown that 40% of Americans are conservative. Let's say they are all Republicans. Now, let's add in say, 10% of independents who lean conservative. That's 50% of the population. Half of those 50% is 25% who support the Tea Party.
Isn't that about equal to the number of declared liberals in America?
Yet, I seem to recall stories that indicate only 10% of Americans support the TP!
Why this obvious discrepency?
I'd say the Dims have a very big problem and they are parsing numbers in a desperate attempt to hide their terror!
That's if my guestimates have any validity at all!
Polls for proles
Submitted by Crash on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 8:03am.
CNN has been off my programmed channels list for years.
I am not a Republican, in fact I am not an active member of any political movement or party. I distrust all ideologies. That said, I haven't voted for, nor have I supported a democrat since turning 18 (33 years ago).
When it comes to polls I think so often that questions are skewed and deliberately lumped together to throw the results toward the ideology that sculpted the question? Perhaps people misread the question. Perhaps they don't understand the gravity in answering the question?
One poll question asked, "Do you like President Obama?" I don't dislike him, so I would have to answer yes. Those whom answered no surely must be hate charged racists. Had the question asked, "Do you like President Obama's economic policies? A resounding NO.
And now for the out question: Do you watch CNN or Fox News? Yes or No
Okayyyyy....
Submitted by NevadanConservative on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 2:58pm.
" "Do you like President Obama?" "
As a matter of fact, I do not.
I was willing to cut him some slack as late as 10 days before the election. When he opened his mouth about 'fundamentally changing the nature of this country", the slack got reeled in. I have found him to be arrogant, egotistical, evasive, and a list of other things.
"Those whom answered no surely must be hate charged racists."
When someone threatens my country the way this man has, and then has the call to lay down the nannystate "for your own good" riff, I'll be angry in my country's defense.
The HUMAN race is the race I am biased toward. Under that definition, all humans are racist.
NVCon
It's pretty obvious.
Submitted by pbthinker on Sun, 09/18/2011 - 11:11pm.
It should be obvious, to the most casual observer, the press has a strategy for the tea party and it's to make them unpalatable to the independent voter. It's probably the only strategy that, if successful, could help get Obama elected and help restore the Democrats in the House and have them retain power in the Senate. If they could successfully make the tea party so toxic that primary voters are afraid to vote for them, they'll get the same squishy RINO's who've failed in the past.
I'm not sure how you handle this, except to put the tea party candidates out there and show just how reasonable they really are. Many of them have been front and center, either responding to the President, or on news shows, and have proven them selves to be articulate.
There is one more factor that can't be factored in, the press has less credibility now than the President and that's saying something. Most people know someone in the tea party and know they aren't how they're portrayed by the media and the Democrats. Once people understand you're lying, you have no crediblity on the issue after that. We'll see how it works out for them.
I'd love to hear if anyone thinks something else is going on!!!!
Every study is unanimous.
Submitted by bagtree on Thu, 03/29/2012 - 4:07am.
Every study is unanimous. Every person killed in an airplane accident has drank cola, ate fruits and potatoes, and drank water at some time. I also heard that the Tea Party drinks water too. They are despicable, I tell Ya!!! Conclusion, Don't drink cola, eat watermelon, or drink water, cause you will die on an airplane if you do, and wind up a Tea party dummy.
And W made them do all of these horrible things!, because he wanted to distract you from his riding his bike on his farm!! LOL (sarcasm)!
In the meantime, the left is showing us who they are, and America does not like what they see. Damn them water drinking, cola sipping, potato and watermelon eating tea-baggers!!!
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