I was reading a CNN poll someone sent me via Twitter suggesting that Obama’s health care reform speech Wednesday night favor his health care plans — a 14-point gain among speech-watchers. Here’s the last paragraph:

The sample of speech-watchers in this poll was 45 percent Democratic and 18 percent Republican. Our best estimate of the number of Democrats in the voting age population as a whole indicates that the sample is about 8-10 points more Democratic than the population as a whole.

Disclosure: I don’t particularly support or oppose Obama’s health care plan, but it is clear that the US media is a joke and pro-Obama.




  1. noname says:

    Guilherme Cherman

    “US media is a joke”

    The irony:: The pot calling the kettle black

  2. bobbo, all media sucks says:

    Media has forgotten its watchdog role over government and instead has become its cheerleader. Not just with Obama, but with Bush, Congress, the Supreme Court, Itself, and the American Public.

    They are nothing more than gutless stenographers. As the press becomes webisized, we will miss the occasional revelatory story every 6-7 years. Hopefully this role will be roughly filled by irresponsible rumor mongering, but I doubt it.

  3. Personality says:

    Wow. That is almost as bad as fox news polls.

  4. Chris F says:

    Let’s be honest here – most of your posts have been a joke.

  5. a says:

    @ 0

    I was reading…

    That’s questionable at best…

  6. Greg Allen says:

    >> it is clear that the US media is a joke and pro-Obama.

    Apparently, Fox News, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Shean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, The Wallstreet Journal, and the 90% of talk radio are all “Pro-Obama”!

    Who do you think you are kidding with that kind of crazy conclusions based on one poorly formulated poll but CNN, who reports favorably on a lot of conservative stuff, too.

  7. Rider says:

    You don’t oppose Obama and health care yet you posted every stupid negative story you can find.

  8. Ben Gleck says:

    Don’t know what bag holds “all the US media”, which btw IS a joke, but hardly on a consistent message except maybe never to question the motives of its various corporate owners. CNN isn’t even consistent between US and International editions, Fox and ABC might lead in the same direction but by different paths, NBC might never get out on the same limb as MSNBC, CBS might never report anything that would piss off anyone. All generalizations, including this one, are false.

  9. gmknobl says:

    Nope, sorry but you are wrong. The U.S. media is NOT pro-Obama. In fact, many and probably most are ANTI-Obama. But that’s not the point. The real point is most are pro-hype, pro-sensationalism and their owners are largely neocons.

  10. Bigbob says:

    It is pretty obvious that your political leaning is far right and that really isn’t right and is certainly out of sink with most of America, probably a fat cat with a good job and money.

  11. Awake says:

    Actually the poll probably is a good representation of the people that watched the speech, and that is what was being measured by CNN. If you read the article, those are figures for the same people before and after the speech.

    Given that a large percentage of Republicans refused to watch the speech because they just plain oppose Obama’s very presidency, and anything that he says or does, the number published by CNN is probably pretty accurate if you base it on those that cared enough to watch.

    I would like to see a poll of Independents that watched the speech last night. The question would simply be:
    “After last night’s behavior on the part of the Republican caucus during the speech, are you more or less inclined to vote Republican?”

    My guess is that the Republican party lost another 5% of their votes last night after their childish behavior. They looked like a bunch of brats and fools, and their leadership looked utterly pained by their antics.

  12. Benjamin says:

    That poll sounds similar to a poll on what types of books someone likes to read if they only sampled people from a science fiction convention.

    Of course the skew the results 2.5 times what they really are.

    And the media is biased toward the Left. (By media, I mean I mean all TV news (not counting Fox News), NPR, and most newspapers.) My standard of measurement was similar to CNN’s in this case.

  13. Robart says:

    #10 “….probably a fat cat with a good job and money.”

    Bigbob is probably right. You’re political leanings would be completely different if you were living on the dole. However, Gallup disagrees with Bigbob about you being out of touch with the rest of America.

    http://www.gallup.com/poll/120857/Conservatives-Single-Largest-Ideological-Group.aspx

  14. Howard Beale says:

    CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CBS ect.
    U.S. media is NOT pro-Obama its pro ratings a.k.a. pro profits.

    Frankly “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

    mmmm I love the smell of yellow journalism in the morning Glenn Beck is my hero he never lets facts get in the way of selling his sensationalism.

    Really its sad that Stewart and Colbert have higher fact checking standards than these “real network” jokers.

  15. Duncan says:

    So, on the one hand it’s possible that the poll is blatantly biased and so very biased that they are willing to tell you right in the article. The other option is that the sample group was actually ideologically split 50/50 but that fewer conservatives actually identify as “Republican”. Don’t you wonder who makes up OTHER 37 percent of the polling group? I mean, 45+18 don’t quite equal 100. I mean, as Robart says, conservatives make up a huge ideological portion of the nation, but self described Republicans don’t. If your gut says that something about the 45/18 doesn’t make sense, it probably isn’t that CNN is so flagrantly skewing the polls.

  16. bobbo, its all definitional says:

    #15–Dumcant==”If your gut says that something about the 45/18 doesn’t make sense,” /// What I thought was you didn’t read the poll.

    Try “copy/past” in your address window rather than failing on double clicking.

    Given the conservatives have flogged the hell out of the term “liberal” I thought “progressive” was the term of the moment?

    Be fun to poll the same group on how many thought they were smart or dumb. Self polling is subject to bias ESPECIALLY when the subjects/terms polled on are not defined.

    So key: define what you are talking about.

  17. Toxic Asshead says:

    The MSM surrrendered the last of their porfessional ethics last year. They are now openly carrying Obama’s water. This is not new or surprising.

  18. Greg Allen says:

    >> Toxic Asshead
    >> The MSM surrrendered the last of their porfessional ethics last year. They are now openly carrying Obama’s water. This is not new or surprising.

    Conservatives: “It is an OUTRAGE that a cable news outlet showed preference for one party! The Fcc SHOULD evoke the license of MSN! We need unswerving objectivity like Fox!”

  19. Dallas says:

    Skewed poll but you have to factor in who watched the speech, right?

    Consider the low Republican turnout …

    (1) FOX Noise did not air the Presidential speech even though it is the MOST important issue facing the nation. Hence, the sheeple were not aware.

    (2) It’s Bingo night in the suburbs

  20. alt_2600 says:

    Perhaps they should limit the ability of Democrats to vote in the poll – or double the votes of Republicans. Or maybe they should throw out any polls that don’t have a roughly equal response ratio. In this poll, Democrats responded in greater numbers than Republicans. In others the opposite is true. They reported the outcome of the poll AND the ratio of Republican to Democratic voters so you could put it in perspective. You guys are just trying to fill empty space on the blog. Fuckers.

  21. jescott418 says:

    The world has been saying for a long time that the US media is so biased that it borders on tabloid. I think this has slowly come from the lack of good journalism. Many for TV are hired for looks then ability.
    You really have to read outside the US media to get a better perspective.
    I like BBC and Canadian news agencies.

  22. smittybc says:

    Well of course most media is a total joke. The problem is that most journalists (at least those in the national spotlight) go to university where they are brainwashed to look at the world in a certain way and their reporting adheres to that script no matter if it exists or not. People may complain about Limbaugh, Savage, etc. (personally I think they run intellectually dishonest shows) but the difference is THEY ADMIT TO BEING PARTISAN. CNN thinks they are playing it straight up the middle.

    In Salon.com Camille Paglia, wrote one of the best paragraphs about this I have read in the last couple of years. (yes there are still some thinkers on the left)

    “But affluent middle-class Democrats now seem to be complacently servile toward authority and automatically believe everything party leaders tell them. Why? Is it because the new professional class is a glossy product of generically institutionalized learning? Independent thought and logical analysis of argument are no longer taught. Elite education in the U.S. has become a frenetic assembly line of competitive college application to schools where ideological brainwashing is so pandemic that it’s invisible. The top schools, from the Ivy League on down, promote “critical thinking,” which sounds good but is in fact just a style of rote regurgitation of hackneyed approved terms (“racism, sexism, homophobia”) when confronted with any social issue. The Democratic brain has been marinating so long in those clichés that it’s positively pickled. “

  23. Johnny says:

    Misleading headline.

  24. Olo Baggins of Bywater says:

    If you do a survey tonight and ask the respondents for their party affiliation you’re going to get ratios like this.

    These numbers make perfect sense, and most other polls will likely yield similar results.

  25. Howard Beale says:

    #23
    Misleading headline. agreed

    if you click on the link to get the poll results on the cnn site you get the qualifier in large type

    “18% of the respondents who participated in tonight’s survey
    identified themselves as Republicans, 45% identified themselves
    as Democrats, and 37% identified themselves as Independents.”

    before getting to the results.

    it seems like a worthless poll but what the hey these 24hr news networks have to keep talking about something.

    The real question is why so few identified themselves as Republicans

    a) not many Republicans left

    b) CNN can’t find them because they are not willing to talk to any one but Fox

    c) CNN purposely skewed the sample then forgot to keep it a secret in the small print. “D’oh!”

  26. ScotterOtter says:

    Given the misleading headline and past submissions, it is clear that the submitter is a joke and is anti-Obama

  27. Tony Murphy says:

    @#1 Nicely put. I hold Obama in a skeptical regard, but I’ll give him another year before anything he has done so far has any real impact and I’ll judge him then. All this blab (as in blabbermouth) is just static.

  28. Olo Baggins of Bywater says:

    The Republicans represent an extremely conservative faction and the notion that those of us who won the election with a solid majority should compromise 50/50 with those who won’t… well then why have elections?

    -Barney Frank

  29. #29 – Olo,

    Is he wrong? I mean, he *is* speaking of a 50/50 split. If only 25% of the country wants something, should we really be willing to give them a 50/50 stake?

    I’m not saying don’t cut them in. And I certainly think Barney Frank talks a little too much and thinks too little. But the core of what he’s saying isn’t wrong.

  30. DJ says:

    Wow, they found 18 republicans who watch CNN?? I thought all of the morons watched fox.

    (reality has a liberal bias)


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