On Tuesday, CBS This Morning touted its latest CBS News/New York Times poll that found “Americans believe there is too much cash in politics,” but conveniently ignored findings within the same poll that showed more Americans disapprove than approve President Obama’s handling of foreign policy.
While co-host Gayle King was quick to note that “84 percent of the people polled said that money has too much influence in political campaigns right now” she failed to mention that only two percent of Americans view it as the “most important problem facing this country today” -- tied with welfare, income gap, and education.
From CBS’s news brief:
A CBS News/New York Times poll out this morning shows that Americans believe there is too much cash in politics. 84% of the people polled said that money has too much influence in political campaigns right now. 46% believes that the system needs a complete rebuild while 39% want to see fundamental changes in the current campaign structure. In 2012, outside groups raised roughly $1 billion for candidates. Some watchdog organizations believe the total could rise to $4 billion in 2016.
Nowhere in King’s explanation was any acknowledgment of the vagueness of the poll question regarding money in politics. Instead, the poll lumped those who have differing opinions as to what changes need to be made regarding the funding of political campaigns into the same three categories.
While those who argue that there should be no limit to how much money an individual or corporation can donate to a campaign may agree with the poll question that the system needs “changes” they are not in the same category as someone who believes there should be strict regulations as to how much a person can contribute.
What was missing from King’s promotion of the network’s latest poll was how a mere 37 percent of Americans approve of President Obama’s handling of foreign policy with 49 percent disapproving, up four percent from April. In addition, CBS failed to mention that nearly half of the country, 49%, disapprove of Obama’s handling of the economy.
CBS has a history of burying its own polling results when it hurts President Obama or Democrats as a whole. In October of 2014, CBS made Imo mention of fact that its own poll showed poor approval ratings for Obama and the Democratic Party ahead of the midterm elections.
In contrast, on January 14 of this year, CBS rushed to promote its own poll which found an increase in Obama’s approval rating but rarely covered his declining approval ratings the year before. More recently, in the wake of the media furor over Indiana’s religious freedom bill in May, CBS News refused to inform its viewers that its own poll found that 51% of Americans believed that business owners “should be allowed to refuse services to same-sex couples if same-sex marriage violates their religious beliefs.”
