Tuesday's CBS Evening News and Wednesday's CBS This Morning touted the latest poll results from the regular CBS News/New York Times poll regarding the 2016 presidential race. However, as of Wednesday evening, the evening and morning newscasts have yet to report on one statistic from the poll: a bare majority of Americans (51 percent) believe that business owners "should be allowed to refuse services to same-sex couples if same-sex marriage violates their religious beliefs."
The poll result even got buried on CBSNews.com. A Tuesday article on the website spotlighted how "views on economy, ISIS [are] more negative," and continued with the approval ratings of President Obama and Congress. The write-up by correspondents Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Anthony Salvanto, and Fred Backus also broke down the President's approval ratings on the economy and foreign policy.
Dutton, De Pinto, Salvanto, and Backus didn't mention the wedding poll findings until the very last paragraph of their article:
A majority of Americans (57 percent) continue to say it should be legal for same-sex couples to marry, although that's down three points from a high reached in February. Most Democrats (66 percent ) and independents (61 percent ) think same-sex marriage should be legal, while most Republicans (61 percent ) do not.
Still, just over half of Americans (51 percent) think small business owners should be allowed to refuse wedding services to same-sex couples if it violates their religious beliefs; 42 percent think those businesses should be required to provide those services. There are sharp partisan differences on this issue.
The CBS journalists didn't get around to disclosing what the specific "sharp partisan differences" were. Sixty-nine percent of Republicans and 52 percent of independents thought business owners "should be allowed to refuse services to same-sex couples if same-sex marriage violates their religious beliefs," while only 36 percent of Democrats agreed with that statement.
The full poll question asked, "Do you think small business owners who provide wedding-related services should be allowed to refuse services to same-sex couples if same-sex marriage violates their religious beliefs, or do you think small business owners should be required to provide services regardless of a couple's sexual orientation?"
The transcripts of the coverage of the latest CBS News/New York Times poll from Tuesday's CBS Evening News and Wednesday's CBS This Morning:
05/05/2015
06:42 pm EDT
CBS Evening NewsNANCY CORDES: In a new CBS News/New York Times poll 47 percent of Republicans say they'd consider voting for Huckabee, putting him second only to Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who tops our poll for the first time. Rubio's former mentor, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, slipped to third.
(...)
SCOTT PELLEY: Our poll also exposes a liability for the Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton. When asked if Clinton is honest and trustworthy, 48 percent of Americans said yes, 45 percent said no. Julianna Goldman reports from Las Vegas.
05/06/2015
07:13 am EDT
CBS This MorningNORAH O'DONNELL: A CBS News/New York Times poll released last night shows Clinton still leads the Democratic race by a landslide. Eighty-five percent of Democratic voters in the poll said they would consider supporting her, but just 48 percent of all voters said she was honest and trustworthy.
The Republican race is much tighter with Marco Rubio leading the list of candidates. Forty-eight percent of Republicans in the poll said they would consider voting for the Florida senator. He's followed by Mike Huckabee and Jeb Bush. Bush has slipped from first to third place in the last six weeks. However, 59 percent of GOP voters believe Bush has the right kind of experience to be president.
