The Poll the Media Refuse to Share With Us

As has been well reported by NewsBusters squad members here and here, the media in the past few weeks have been falling all over themselves to report President Bush’s apparently plummeting poll numbers.  However, few media outlets pay attention to the poll conducted on a daily basis by Rasmussen Reports.  Could it be that Rasmussen’s numbers don’t mirror the negativity of many of the other polling groups?

“Saturday September 17, 2005--Forty-seven percent (47%) of American adults now approve of the way George W. Bush is performing his role as President.”

Of particular note regarding Rasmussen’s numbers is that unlike most of the other polls making headlines, Bush’s approval rating has been virtually unchanged since Katrina hit.  In addition, despite the gloom and doom being espoused by other polls, Bush’s current rating of 47 percent is only one point lower than his low for all of 2004, and only seven points lower than his high this year.  As such, according to Rasmussen, there has been far less volatility in Bush's approval numbers than most other polling agencies have been reporting.

That said, given how well Rasmussen’s group has performed of late, it is really quite extraordinary that nobody has paid any attention to them.  After all, their final pre-election polling numbers in November 2004 were more accurate than any other polling agency’s:

“The final, certified, results of Election 2004 show that President George W. Bush received 50.7% of the vote while Senator John Kerry earned 48.3%. Those figures are very close to the final Rasmussen Reports Daily Tracking Poll. We projected the President would win 50.2% to 48.5%.”

I guess the mainstream media don’t care about accuracy.