ABC Gives 17 Seconds To Own Poll Showing ‘Democrats Sweating’ Before Midterms

October 15th, 2014 11:12 AM

The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll is out and it has some sobering news for Democrats with less than three weeks to go until the midterm election. The poll found that President Obama’s approval rating has dropped to a new low of just 40 percent and the Democratic Party’s popularity is at its weakest point in the last 30 years.

Despite ABC News declaring that their own poll “has Democrats sweating", ABC’s Good Morning America gave the story a mere 17 seconds on its Wednesday morning broadcast and buried it among a flurry of news briefs.

From Amy Robach’s brief:

And there’s trouble ahead for Democrats in the next month's midterm elections. According to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, President Obama's approval rating has plunged to a new low of 40 percent. That's the same as President Bush's approval rating back in 2006 before Democrats swept the midterm elections. 

Unsurprisingly, GMA felt the need to drag up liberals’ favorite punching bag, President George W. Bush, when discussing President Obama's low approval, but the ABC newsreader failed to provide the full results of her own network’s polling.

Michael Falcone, ABC News Deputy Political Director, explained why Democrats are really “sweating” heading into the midterm elections:

GOP candidates nonetheless hold a 50-43 percent lead among likely voters for U.S. House seats in the Nov. 4 election. These and other results are informed by an array of public concerns on issues from the economy to international terrorism to the Ebola virus, crashing into a long-running crisis of confidence in the nation’s political leadership.

While GMA gave only 17 seconds to their own polling, the network gave 58 seconds to a video of Michelle Obama encouraging people to eat more of her favorite vegetable, the turnip.

See relevant transcript below.

ABC’s Good Morning America

October 15, 2014

AMY ROBACH: And there’s trouble ahead for Democrats in the next month's midterm elections. According to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, President Obama's approval rating has plunged to a new low of 40 percent. That's the same as President Bush's approval rating back in 2006 before Democrats swept the midterm elections.