The kind of poll that should have sparked some media attention

March 17, 2006

Yesterday, as blog readers everywhere now know, the American Research Group released the results of a national poll gauging support for congressional censure of the president, and possibly, impeachment. Surprisingly, support for both is quite strong, with a plurality favoring the censure resolution currently pending in the Senate.

My friend Swan emailed a good question: how many newspapers reported on the results of the ARG poll? Russ Feingold’s controversial measure has generated widespread attention throughout the political world, and this poll offered the first glimpse of what Americans think about whether the idea has merit.

Surely the major dailies would let readers know about this, right? Wrong. According to a search on Google News, the total number of newspapers that mentioned the ARG poll is two.

The Austin American-Statesman ran a solid news item on the results, while David Sarasohn, a columnist for the Oregonian, mentioned the poll in his column today. That’s it.

Now, it’s not uncommon for news outlets, particularly newspapers, to limit their coverage to their own poll results. Papers have contracts with polling firms and usually see little value in touting the other results.

But the ARG poll isn’t just another set of numbers; it’s a key development in a pretty big political story. What’s more, the poll challenges the conventional wisdom by highlighting just how widespread the support would be for a congressional censure of the president.

Two newspapers mentioned the poll? Two? It’s all but journalistic malpractice.

This is bad for Bush.
The MSM is owned by corporations, and Bush is their guy. So, they supress this news.
Also, by keeping this out of the MSM, it givea ammo to those crying, “It’s only the lefty wingnuts that want this!”
I feel like a broken record (remember records?):
It is the media that has brought us to this horrible place.
They have more power than most people think.

  • What’s the old saying again; the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

    Me, I keep expecting to see the news media wake up and start to actually do some reporting. They never do. Yet I keep feeling surprised all the same, each and every time, over and over again.

    I am insane.

  • Stop imagining that the media are anything other than more-or-less open stewards of corporate Republican power. They’re whores, of course, so if there’s an obvious spot where tilting left can make money, they may take it. However, the first and last instinct will always be to support the GOP-friendliest narrative.

    Journalism, defined as the vigorous pursuit of truth for its own sake, is nearly dead.

  • It is definitely journalistic malpractice. But then we’ve been used to that for about five or six years now. It’s a good thing the blogs came along when they did or we’d never know what’s going on. Unfortunately “red people” rarely read “blue blogs” and vice versa.

  • No murder? No sex? No story.

    What’s the old saying again; the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

    Did you happen to see this today?

  • The least we can do is make sure we let everyone know about it. Then if the papers don’t run it, it won’t be because they didn’t hear.

    And everyone else will have heard anyway. So the hell with the papers.

  • Ed – Can you recommend a red blog or too for us blue bloggers to read ?
    Perhaps something not Waumpuscat literary style.

  • Carpetbagger, why are you surprised? I could have told you this would happen yesterday. Anybody could have told you this would happen yesterday. Bush did not: a) get a blowjob b) get indicted c) shoot somebody d) get caught buying cocaine e) have another staff member get indicted and resign in disgrace f) say a naughty word over an open mic. Since none of those things happened, clearly it is not newsworthy, and until one of those things does happen.

    This brings up an interesting thought though. What would happen if the news started telling it like it is? My guess: a horrified GOP realizes it is about to be crushed in the mid-terms, followed by an immidate impeachment of the entire cabinet level and above executive branch of government, resulting in the destruction of the Republicans as a major force in American politics. Martial law is declared for ‘public safety’ as the news operations of every major network and paper in the country are purged of the ‘terrorist infiltrators’.

    Maybe I’m just being melodramatic.

  • It’s all but journalistic malpractice. – Mr. CB

    True, but it allows for blogosphere best practice which is to highlight and focus on the unvarnished truth. Ed Schultz also jumped on the rather lurking nature of this poll data yesterday.

    Whether it lurks or not for the time being, it exists and the sentiment is what it is. Now it’s time for non-newspaper sources of information to pound the poll data into the real world and help continue the process of, unfortunately, making the newspaper’s position as a valued and trusted source of information even more tenuous.

  • There’s a subtle bias in the news that everyone
    knows is there, but which we don’t think about
    often. It’s not just the corporate owners who have
    a vested interest in this administration, but the
    more highly paid employees, too. In the MSM,
    these employees are those who report the news.
    All have received whopping tax breaks. All are
    thinking about that all the time. Down goes
    Bush, and down go the tax breaks – maybe, but
    at least they think so, and that’s what counts.

    It’s important to realize, too, that the biggest tax
    breaks are in capital gains, not earned income.
    The American people seldom have assets outside
    their homes and 401(k)s and IRAs, so they don’t
    know about them. But the news people are all
    “earning” lots of money, and are putting a lot
    away in individual investment accounts, and they
    are really scoring big. In addition, there’s the
    added incentive of the elimination of the estate
    tax – once you accumulate 5 million or so, none
    of your direct heirs ever has to work again.

    I think it’s a subtle, yet real influence over the
    news in particular, and society in general – the
    well to do are cleaning up under Bush. It’s pretty
    hard to be objective when you’re getting legally
    bribed.

    These tax cuts of Bush are far more ruinous to
    America than mere fiscal disaster. An ingenious
    ploy by the Republicans, I must say. Not just lining
    their own pockets at the expense of the masses,
    but ensuring this policy in perpetuity by including
    eveyone who makes any money above subsistence.

  • It’s definitely a pattern. The MSM didn’t seriously report on Bush’s plummeting poll numbers until it was too hard to ignore anymore. But note that any small bump upwards is followed with a hopeful “Bush is making a comeback!” They ignored a massive immigration rally in Chicago, and now this. I suspect it’s because items like this don’t fit into their narrative of the last six years. (Bush is popular. Bush is protecting us from terror. Bush has a “popular mandate.” Iraq is a worthwhile military adventure.)

    But there are also a couple of other things to consider. First, most newspapers have cut their editorial staffs. As a result, they now rely on wire services like the Associate Press and Reuters. If neither service noted it in their stories, it isn’t going to be in many newspapers. Second, there is no seperation between the business side and the news side of media outlets. During my years as a reporter the publisher and sales staff always had a hand in what got covered and how. This was particularly true of politics. If the publisher didn’t like what was said, it didn’t get in the paper.

  • For my money the best single source on our modern press is the Daily Howler. Somerby would add lazy to hark’s fat as an explanation of the dysfunction of the MSM.

  • One encouraging thing is that the majority of Americans seem to be ‘getting it’ even in spite of the overt suppression of important news that the MSM is engaged in. This gives us the greatest ray of hope available, to my way of thinking. Even Diebold won’t be able to save BushCo if a massive voter revolt occurs.

    Keep up the pressure, citizens, it’s working!!

  • Gridlock, that’s funny.
    I HADN’T seen that Toles cartoon.
    Must be something in the air.
    By the ways, by insanity I was referring to why it is that I (emphasis) keep expecting the journamalists to act differently then they do, when I really should know better.
    I was a media studies major for chrissakes!

  • The current fourth estate, like the current government, lacks checks and balances. Is free market pressure the only way to go with news reporting? The least amount of staff for the highest amount of ratings? Car chases, dead white women, and celebrity trials? Could we construct laws that would redress this problem? Or is there some way that it will be fixed, either by Dems with money wising up and buying their own media giants, or through interative personalized news video via the internet?

  • Kali (#8),

    Sorry I didn’t get back earlier. I was out for lunch and didn’t get back to my computer till now.

    I don’t make a regular habit of reading conservatives, but it’s interesting once in a while to see what they’re up to. Andrew Sullivan is usually good. Bob Novak used to be a good source of right-wing thought and news, still is once in a while. I rarely if ever agree with Rich Lowry but I read him once in a while. Ditto, Tony Blankley.

  • Ed- Thanks! I’ve added several red blogs to my favorites file .

    It’s fascinating to see how the mind works with a different color filter.

    For example- Reading how someone can actually have tender sympathy for Bush.

    “It is odd that the same senators who believe in water torture for the president of the United States vigorously oppose similar water-related interrogation techniques when used on captured enemy terrorists”-Tony Blankley

  • Ed — Have you ever read David Neiwert’s blog Oricnus? He hails from up your way and writes a lot about the ramped up rhetoric of the right-wing. If you’ve read him I was just curious about your take on his writings.

  • Kali,
    The right is often given to logical fallacies: an inept simile like senatorial “water torture for the president” being equated with the real-world screaming and vomiting “water-related interrogation techniques” used by our thugs at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo? I enjoy reading snippets of red blogs for just such gems of illogic, but personally can’t stand much of it.

    marcus,
    I wasn’t familiar with that blog. Thanks for telling me about it. I’ve taken just a short look at it and will try some more of it tomorrow.

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