FOX Poll Reporting: Thinly Disguised Partisanship
Reported by Ellen - October 12, 2004 -
This is the fifth time I have written about a FOX report on its own poll of the presidential election. Like the other four, the latest poll report, dated October 5, 2004, from the so-called "Fair and Balanced" network tries to pull a flimsy cover over FOX's bias. It's a cover easily seen through with just a few minutes of attention given to the actual poll commissioned by FOX.
For example, the lead paragraph says, "The president retains his spot as being seen as the stronger leader and the candidate who would do a better job on terrorism, while Kerry makes gains on handling of the economy and health care."
True enough but what's never mentioned in the article is that Bush's approval rating on handling terrorism (Question #8 in the poll) has sunk 14 points since January - an important statistic if you are going to make his "strength" on this issue the main focus of the poll results.
As for Bush being a strong leader, FOX conveniently buries until 13 paragraphs later some other attributes ascribed to him by voters (Questions 30-34):
More voters thought the word "arrogant" described Bush and more thought "intelligent" described Kerry. Kerry was also seen as more sensible than Bush. When FOX reporter Dana Blanton does get around to this point, she (he?) makes sure to put the Bush positives first: "More voters describe Bush as 'tough' (+33 points) and as 'genuine' (+12 points) but more also see him as 'arrogant' (+14 points). Slightly more voters think 'sensible' describes Kerry (+3 points), and the Democrat also has a double-digit edge on being better described by the word 'intelligent' 47 percent to Bush's 25 percent, with 22 percent saying both are." Notice how intelligence is put last, buffered by the "22 percent saying both are" and that Blanton never quantifies Bush's 22 percent deficit in this category. This is the only attribute not quantified by Blanton who glosses over the number by calling it "double-digit."
Does FOX think that voters' perception of intelligence in a president is less important than perception of toughness or is the network attempting to draw the reader's attention away from this unflattering-to-Bush statistic?
Reporter Blanton doesn't reveal that voters think the economy "tops the list as the most important issue today" until halfway through the article. Could that be because Kerry leads Bush on this issue? Not only has Kerry's lead widened in that regard since the previous poll but Bush's approval numbers on his handling of the economy have sunk five points since January while his disapproval ratings have risen 7.
Has FOX buried this information because the Real Journalism network thinks this issue is less important than the voters do? Or is it once again trying some journalistic sleight-of-hand to make sure the Bush positives stay forefront in the reader's mind?
I report, you decide.
