Complaints about GOP Pollster at PBS Dem Debate Ignore CNN Pollster's Clinton Connections

Matt Sheffield's post over at Ace's place ("The Attempted Crucifixion of Frank Luntz") noted the heat PBS had received for having GOP pollster Frank Luntz participate as an analyst at last Thursday's Democrat debate:

The blog left's puppet master, David Brock, sends out an "alert" informing them that someone who might possibly be conservative is going to be allowed to report as a "mainstream" journalist.

..... Thankfully, PBS has not backed down. Luntz, who is a respected pollster and is often quoted in liberal publications is not getting the shaft, making him one of the very few Republicans that has (so far) managed to escape the assault of the conservaphobic left.

Mr. Brock and his Media Matters (MM) organization are being quite selective.

In August 2006, longtime "Friend of Bill" Clinton Vinod Gupta's Info USA, which had spent its entire corporate history in "data collection and distribution," made what should have been seen as an eyebrow-raising acquisition:

OMAHA, Neb. & PRINCETON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 4, 2006--infoUSA Inc. (Nasdaq: IUSA), the leading provider of business and consumer information products, database marketing services, data processing services and sales and marketing solutions, today announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement under which it will acquire Opinion Research Corporation (Nasdaq: ORCI) for $12.00 per share in cash.

The Opinion Research Corporation (ORC) acquisition was completed on December 4.

Gupta's longtime connections with the Clintons, up to and including a nebulous consulting arrangement between Info USA and Bill, along with contributions to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, were cataloged in detail by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann in a May 24 New York Post column. A May 20 New York Times investigative piece (now behind TimeSelect firewall; excerpted at this BizzyBlog post), whose authors were perhaps unaware of the Clinton nexus, wrote up an Info USA affiliate as one of the main providers of the "sucker lists" used by elder-scam artists to fleece vulnerable seniors.

Within 45 days of the acquisition's consummation, CNN, the same network whose late-1990s boss Rick Kaplan obsessed over covering for Bill Clinton's assorted problems, made a very interesting announcement (original PDF saved as HTML for fair use and discussion purposes):

For Release: Jan. 12, 2007

CNN Announces New Polling Partner Opinion Research Corporation

CNN political director Sam Feist announced today that Opinion Research Corporation will become CNN’s new polling partner as the network moves toward the 2008 elections. Beginning in 2007, polls released by the network will be identified as CNN/Opinion Research Corporation surveys.

"Opinion Research Corporation’s reputation for independent, objective analysis and its excellent reputation in the industry make the firm the ideal polling partner for CNN,” Feist said. “As the network gears up to offer the most in-depth and expansive coverage of the 2008 election, Opinion Research Corporation will be a key part of giving viewers the accurate and relevant information they demand."

Opinion Research Corporation, founded in 1938, is widely known and respected for its independent, non-partisan polls. The polling firm has worked with CNN since April 2006 and in that time has conducted national polls, speech reaction polls, state polls and flash/overnight polls.

One can't help but wonder, given the change in ownership, whether ORC's vaunted independence and objectivity are endangered. Regardless, its independence in appearance is long gone.

David Brock's Media Matters was the primary driver of the objection to Luntz. As these MM site searches show ("Clinton Gupta" and "CNN Clinton"; both entered without quotes; no results relevant to what is discussed here returned), Brock's George Soros affiliates-backed crew, while whining about one appearance of a GOP pollster on PBS, "somehow" hasn't gotten around to noticing a very real and long-term pollster-related conflict of interest occurring on a daily basis at what appears, once again, to be the Clinton News Network.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.