Media Matters: Tweety, O'Donnell cherry-picked NBC poll to make it pro-GOP

[Human Torch]

Matthews, O'Donnell misrepresented, cherry-picked NBC poll as favorable for GOP

http://mediamatters.org/items/200609150005



On the September 14 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews misrepresented, and chief Washington correspondent Norah O'Donnell cherry-picked, a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll to portray it as favorable to President Bush and Republicans. Specifically, Matthews touted the fact that Bush's approval rating had climbed two percentage points -- to 42 percent -- over the course of two weeks, leading him to assert, "If they keep doing that, they're up to 50 percent by Election Day." In fact, the two-point increase documented by the NBC poll occurred over seven weeks. Meanwhile, O'Donnell cited the poll's finding that more Americans would vote for a candidate who supports maintaining current troop levels in Iraq over one who supports immediate withdrawal, but ignored another poll finding showing majority support for a candidate advocating gradual redeployment -- the plan most Democrats support.

During the show, Matthews repeatedly cited the uptick in Bush's approval rating found in the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll conducted September 8-11. "The president is picking up in the polls -- picked up a couple of points," Matthews said, adding, "If he keeps doing this, what he has been doing the last two weeks for the next eight weeks, he is going to be back to 50 percent." Later in the show, Matthews again noted that the White House "picked up two points in two weeks. If they keep doing that, they're up to 50 percent by Election Day." Indeed, the poll found that Bush's approval rating had increased to 42 percent from the 40 percent found in the most recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. But contrary to Matthews's claim that this two percent increase occurred over a two-week period, the last poll was conducted July 21-24 -- seven weeks ago. Further, even if Matthews's premise is accurate, his extrapolation is dubious. By his logic, Bush's approval rating could improve to 90 percent by September 2007 and to 120 percent six months thereafter.

While Matthews misrepresented NBC News' polling to claim a recent upward trend in Bush's approval rating, O'Donnell cherry-picked the most recent survey to cast the Democrats' strategy on Iraq as "dangerous." She noted the poll's finding that respondents favored a Republican candidate who "says the United States should maintain its current troop level in Iraq" over a Democratic candidate who supports "an immediate and orderly withdrawal of troops from Iraq." O'Donnell then conceded that most Democrats do not, in fact, support "immediate" withdrawal from Iraq, but nonetheless said: "That's a sign to Democrats that the cut-and-run message, immediate withdrawal, even though that's not what they -- a lot -- many of them are proposing, is a dangerous one for them."

But rather than cite the finding that compares the Republican position on Iraq to a policy that -- as O'Donnell conceded -- most Democrats do not advocate, she could have cited a more relevant question from the poll. The survey also juxtaposed a hypothetical Republican candidate who supports maintaining current troop levels with a hypothetical Democratic candidate who "says the United States should reduce the current troop level" -- the policy advocated by most Democrats. When faced with this choice, respondents favored the Democratic candidate by a 53-40 percent margin.

[Greeby]

1. Tweety and Noron shilling for Bushco?

I'm shocked, I tell ya :sarcasm:

[Human Torch]

2. I know, but you know what's funny?

Last week Tweety made a point of mentioning Media Matters and saying "They're over there complaining about something I said EVERY DAY!"

:rofl:

Sorry, Tweets. Sounds like the life of a true "Independent" such as yourself can be a real bitch.

:evilgrin:

[eleny]

5. "They're over there complaining about something I said EVERY DAY!"

Yep. They're doing their job.

[Cha]

8. Yeah, bitch about the messenger,

tweetshit, but the message is you fucking make up shit and you can't argue with that.

[rodeodance]

3. cherry picking season is over

[sandnsea]

4. Actually it's just started - and is a good slogan

Any time Republicans are confronted about things said in campaigns - they respond with "it's the silly season of campaigning". We should be responding with "well it's the cherry picking season" so people will start remembering that they're only hearing part of the story with these Republicans.

[Journeyman]

6. Warning: "Policies D's don't support hurt them in our bogus polls"…

She's not called "Noron" for nought.

[Doctor_J]

7. NBC has rthese two an dWilliams, ABC has Path to 9/11, CBS

has a sequence of ultra-right wingers on "free speech", and Fox is Fox. There is no way we're going to get back in power against this onslaught

[samsingh]

9. tweety the whore

[Eurobabe]

10. Both high on Bu$hBot Brew: ignore, ignore

eom