The new Washington Post/ABC poll is on the front page of the paper today (3/15/11): Nearly two-thirds of Americans now say the war in Afghanistan is no longer worth fighting, the highest proportion yet opposed to the conflict, according to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll. The Post's write-up includes a lot of strange language about the political situation for the White House: "a growing challenge for President Obama,""a difficult political challenge,""an awkward issue for the president." A more direct way of putting it would be to say thatObama's war policy is massively unpopular. A broader point: No matter how [...]
Mar
03
2011
Are Teachers Scorned? Much Less Than Reporters
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"Teachers Wonder, Why the Heapings of Scorn?" is the headline of a front-page New York Times piece today (3/3/11). The article by Trip Gabriel reports, "Education experts say teachers have rarely been the targets of such scorn from politicians and voters." Politicians, sure, but what's the evidence that voters–i.e., the public–have been heaping scorn on teachers? Gabriel offers nothing to substantiate this claim other than references to "online comments and placards of counterdemonstrators"–quoting blog commenters as evidence of the national mood has got to stop, guys–and the assertion that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's teacher-bashing has made him a "national [...]
Mar
01
2011
The Public vs. the Media on Unions, Deficits
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Today the New York Times reports its new poll (3/1/11): As labor battles erupt in state capitals around the nation, a majority of Americans say they oppose efforts to weaken the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions and are also against cutting the pay or benefits of public workers to reduce state budget deficits, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. That's big enough news, and once again cuts against the People-Don't-Support-These-Overpaid-Union-Workerstrope. But there's more.When the poll asked about fixing the deficit, peoplehad a message rarely heard in the media: Asked how they would choose to reduce [...]
Feb
28
2011
Who's the Source of O'Reilly's 'Nonpartisan' Pro-Walker Poll?
By 6 Comments
On his Fox News show Friday, self-described "union guy" Bill O'Reilly was touting the results of a newpoll finding that Wisconsinites are backing Gov. Scott Walker: According to a new poll by WisconsinReporter.com, a nonpartisan group, 71 percent of Wisconsinites believe that Gov. Scott Walker's union cutbacks are fair.71 percent. And 69 percent of Wisconsin residents believe state workers have better benefits than private sector employees. That finding would seem to at odds with other polls of Wisconsin residents.But who is this "nonpartisan" group, anyway?If you go to the WisconsinReporter.com website, the "About"page is blank. TPMuckracker fills in the details: [...]
Feb
24
2011
The Public Doesn't Hate Public Workers
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As Josh Marshall noted recently, one of the assumptions in the media discussion about Wisconsin is that Republican politicians are playing on public outrage over the perks given to public workers. That assumption took a hit after a new Gallup Poll, reported on the front page of USA Today, found this: Americans strongly oppose laws taking away the collective bargaining power of public employee unions, according to a new USA Today/Gallup Poll. The poll found 61 percent would oppose a law in their state similar to such a proposal in Wisconsin, compared with 33 percent who would favor such a [...]
Feb
04
2011
A Tough Call: Daily News Media Bias Poll
By 43 Comments
Hmmm… can I get two votes? For the record, the results are currently 94 percent for liberal control, 1 percent for conservative-pandering and 5 percent for control by the rich.
Jan
07
2011
Liberal Media Slams Boehner!
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The Washington Post's account(1/6/11) of John Boehner's first day as Speaker of the House could have been a press release from Boehner's office. The headline was "A Modest Boehner Takes Congress's Most Powerful Office." Post readers learned that"Boehner tends to shun big moments such as these. He's more at home on the golf course with his rank-and-file buddies." He's just one of us! The Post adds: About 500 of Boehner's constituents, including family friends from the Cincinnati area, came to see him sworn in. Many of them, as well as some D.C. lobbyists, came through his office late Wednesday morning [...]
Jan
03
2011
Bogus Net Neutrality Poll
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I was struck by this December 30 headline at the Huffington Post: "Only 21 Percent Of U.S. Voters Support Net Neutrality." Really? Well it turns out the poll was conducted by Scott Rasmussen, whose polling has made him afavorite at Fox News Channel. The real story here is that the poll question was clearly cooked up to achieve the desired outcome. As Amy Lee noted near the bottom of the piece, Rasmussen asked this question:"Should the Federal Communications Commission regulate the Internet like it does radio and television?" But the FCC's proposed net neutrality rules do not at all resemble [...]
Jul
30
2010
USA Today: Americans Continue to Support Afghan War–in 2001
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A USA Today story by Susan Page (7/27/10), on the impact of the WikiLeaks revelations, reports that despite some erosion, "Most Americans continue to support the war in Afghanistan." To back up this assertion, Page cites Gallup poll findings (7/8-11/10) that 58 percent of Americans think it was "not a mistake" for the U.S. to have sent troops to Afghanistan in 2001. Clearly, though, it's possible to believe that U.S. troops should have been sent to Afghanistan in 2001 without thinking that they should still be there almost nine years later. Much more to the point was the July 11 [...]
Jul
02
2010
Another Latin American Left President Under Fire?
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The new Oliver Stone documentary South of the Border israisingawareness of the often shabby U.S. media treatment of Latin America. A recent example is a June 24L.A. Times piece by Alex Renderos headlined "El Salvador President Under Fire." The president is former FMLN leader Mauricio Funes, who waselected last year. According to the Times, things are going poorly for him: Crime and corruption are still problems, he is facing an"avalanche of criticism," and "Salvadorans are growing impatient." The paperadds: Funes' failures have hit the poor and working class especially hard. After two decades of one-party right-wing rule, they greeted the [...]
Jun
18
2010
We're All Deficit Hawks–Not
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Senate Democrats are having trouble passing a spending bill that would, among other things, extend unemployment benefits and deliver much-needed financial aid to cash-starved states. Today the New York Times (6/18/10) explained the legislative logjam this way: The spending and tax measure has become caught up in intensifying politics around deficit spending as members of both parties, reacting to rising public concern, have grown reluctant to vote for measures that add to federal red ink. Reacting to public concern? As we've noted before, there is far more public concern that the government is not doing enough to stimulate job growth. [...]
