The Kicker

Polling Questions: Sly Like A Fox

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Fox News has conducted a poll, promisingly entitled, “Does Obama Get Better Treatment by the Press?”

Well, we were, of course, in all our media monitor-iness, intrigued. Do people think he does he get better treatment, Fox News?

Things start off well. “When asked to rate the objectivity of media coverage of the campaigns,” Fox’s summary notes, “Americans feel Obama gets more of a positive spin by a better than 7-to-1 margin (46 percent more positive toward Obama; 6 percent more positive toward McCain). Just under 4 Americans in 10 (36 percent) says both campaigns are being covered objectively.”

Not too surprising—particularly in a week when the media themselves have been talking about media fixation on Obama. But then. This. Below.

Have you heard any of your friends and neighbors say there is something about Barack Obama that scares them?
Yes 49%
No 50%

Have you heard any of your friends and neighbors say there is something about John McCain that scares them?
Yes 36%
No 62%

Some people believe Barack Obama, despite his professed Christianity, is secretly a Muslim. Others say that is just a rumor and Obama really is a Christian as he says, and point out he’s attended a Christian church for years. What do you believe — is Obama a Muslim or a Christian?
Muslim 10%
Christian 57%

John McCain was held captive for five years in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp. Do you think that experience would make McCain a better president or a worse president?
Better 49%
Worse 11%
No Difference (voluntary) 33%

Do you think Barack Obama’s trip to Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East is better described as a fact-finding trip or as a campaign event?
Fact-finding 19%
Campaign event 47%
Both (voluntary) 25%

Sigh.

[h/t: TPM’s Eric Kleefeld]

CJR

Comments

TDC

Fri 25 Jul 2008 04:43 PM

What’s really interesting about this post, is the way you first described yourselves as intrigued media monitors who were oh-so interested in the results of this poll. But after looking at the Fox Report, this blog post and the TPM link you had at the bottom (your hat tip), it would appear that its quite possible you didn’t even bother to read the Fox poll, and instead just cut and pasted the data and its implications directly from TPM.

Oh sure, you lead off your “analysis” with the opening line from the Fox article, but if you dug a bit deeper (you know your self proclaimed mission at CJR), you would have seen that there were 50 questions in the poll and most of the data in the poll falls into line with the majority of the national polls on Obama and McCain. Granted, the five questions that you cut-n-pasted from TPM, would surely give the impression that this was a push poll and that Fox was certainly trying to fish for responses, but contrary to your cut-n-paste job from TPM, these 5 questions were not sequential in the actual poll.

But how absolutely positively side splitingly ironic is it that you would use TPM to bash the objectivity of Fox News when you never bothered to take an independent look at the Fox News Poll yourself. The fact that you probably don’t see the irony in this is what makes this so pathetic. Granted, there might be an issue with the way Ernie Paicopolos presented the data, but I think its more problematic that the “watchdogs” of journalism at CJR would be this incredibly and blatantly lazy.

So Megan, when you go home tonight, for the sake of your "noble profession", look in the mirror and ask yourself why people find GW Bush more trustworthy than journalists?

Megan Garber

Fri 25 Jul 2008 05:49 PM

Maybe it's just that it's nearing the end of the day on Friday, TDC, but I'm failing to see your point. I made no comment about the overall content of the poll, except to say that its findings, as you say, aren't terribly surprising, nor did I draw any critical connection between the questions asked in the poll and Paicopolos's summary of their results. I simply pointed out for our readers—yes, as Kleefeld did for his—the questions in the poll that are, well, questionable. Which you yourself admit are questionable. And which will remain questionable however much you try to change the subject.

TDC

Fri 25 Jul 2008 08:32 PM

How does one make this statement:

I made no comment about the overall content of the poll

and then make this one:

I simply pointed out for our readers—yes, as Kleefeld did for his—the questions in the poll that are, well, questionable

How Kerryesque. Maybe you have had a long week.