Mark Halperin, Chris Matthews and Anderson Cooper Skew Obama Ratings

[stevenleser]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Mark-Halperin-Chris-Matth-by-Steven-Leser-090204-188.html
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February 4, 2009

By Steven Leser


It all started with Mark Halperin's brief note in Time Magazine, http://thepage.time.com/2009/02/03/poll-obama-approval-rating-drops/ , which stated "Poll: Obama Approval Rating Drops". It goes on to say that Obama's job approval level is 64%, "down from a pre-Inauguration high of 83%".

Chris Matthews on MSNBC and Anderson Cooper on CNN jumped on this information and promptly repeated it on each of their shows on Friday. What’s the problem? It combines information from two different polls that ask different questions and reaches an unsupported and erroneous conclusion.

The first poll deals with Obama's transition. Gallup asked people "Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his presidential transition?" http://www.gallup.com/poll/113824/Obama-Wins-83-Approval-Rating-Transition.aspx the final metric for this was that 83% of the country approved of then President-elect Obama's transition efforts.

When President-elect Obama became President Obama, Gallup and other polling organizations started tracking his job approval ratings. His first rating came in at 68% for the period of January 21-23rd.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the question “How do you think President Barack Obama is doing his job?” is not the same question as "How is President-Elect Barack Obama handling his transition?"

The error gets even worse, because Halperin's suggestion of a drop from 83% to 64% doesn't even rely on unrelated polls from the same polling agency. For the 64% figure, he went to USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-02-02-poll-stimulus_N.htm#table whose January 30-Feb 1 poll shows Obama with a 64% job approval rating.

Mark Halperin and Time Magazine deserve the bulk of the criticism for coming up with and then printing this twisted analysis. Matthews & MSNBC and Cooper & CNN also deserve criticism for not bothering to vet Halperin's data and throwing it out there, in what I can only assume to be a rush in order not to be scooped by other networks.

A 19% drop in approval would be big news if it were true. Presenting this erroneous data as fact and drawing the conclusion that Obama’s approval is falling is irresponsible at best. A conspiracy theorist could easily conclude that these three media personalities and their networks/agencies were deliberately trying to create negative momentum for Obama and his new administration. At the least, this deserves a prominent retraction on air/print and an accompanying apology to viewers and to President Obama.

[stevenleser]

1. Thanks to Frenchie Cat both for the idea and for allowing me to use her ideas

I loves my FrenchieCat!

[FrenchieCat]

2. And I love me some steveleser!

And I am going over there to rec and comment and to dig and everything else there is to do at the site!

.....Because this is not the time for the corporate media to screw us again. We are deep enough in the big cemetery hole as it is!

[suston96]

3. Making Obama their target they hope will attract viewers - they think.....

.....it will backfire.

Oh, and about those polls - How short are the memories of the polls during the primaries and the general election?

[FrenchieCat]

4. I think they are trying to affect the public support for the Stimulus package......

as it presently is. The big guys at the top want those corporate tax cuts in there. They are working hard for their money.

[shoopnyc]

5. IN. FUCKING. CREDIBLE. eom

[Mass]

6. Welcome to the world of incompetent and corrupted media.

Nothing new though. Too many polls have been skewed in one direction or another to make them appear compatible with the message.

[CTyankee]

7. OK, anybody have the email address for Halperin?

You can't ask different questions and report the numbers as if they reflect the same poll.

This is fraudulent. Such a poll has no validity. It is ludicrous and laughable.

If he can't figure that out, he needs to hire somebody who can design and execute a poll that can hold up scientifically...

[meli224]

8. I can't find any emails for these jerks.

MSNBC was just citing the same bullshit poll just now. What a fucking joke these people are! I need to find someone's email because I am getting so pissed about this!

[FrenchieCat]

10. Here are some email addresses.....and phone numbers

at the link, at the bottom of the post: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=7971781&mesg_id=7971781

[Blaukraut]

9. kick to keep the media honest n/t

[firedupdem]

11. kick!

We all need to be yelling and screaming about this.

:kick:

[ellacott]

12. I'm very mad about this

I sent some emails. In my email to Anderson Cooper I also asked him why he keeps referring to our President as Mr. Obama.