Thursday, June 18, 2009

Negative Media Spin on Obama Polls Exposed.

Here's a little thing I noticed yesterday that Thinkprogress found just as bizarre:

Major Media Headlines Pretend That Latest Polls Show Obama’s Policies Are Unpopular

News headlines quickly settled on a theme: The polls showed that President Obama’s policies were suddenly unpopular: “Sticker Shock — Obama still popular; his policies, not so much” [ABC's The Note] “Polls find rising concern with Obama on key issues” [Reuters]
“Polls Show Declining Support For Obama Decisions” [U.S. News & World Report's Political Bulletin] “Obama’s popularity: Problems testing it” [Chicago Tribune's The Swamp]
“Is ‘Smooth Sailing’ Over for Obama?” [Washington Post]

The headlines have little to no relation to the actual data in the polls, both of which found broad approval for Obama’s foreign policy and economic agendas. From the New York Times/CBS poll:

5. Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling the economy? 57% approve, 35% disapprove

8. Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling the threat of terrorism? 57% approve, 27% disapprove

16. So far, do you think Barack Obama’s policies have made the economy better, made the economy worse or haven’t his policies had any effect on the economy yet? 32% say better, 15% say worse

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