ABC News/Wash. Post withheld results of poll favorable to Obama

[EV_Ares]

Summary: ABC News and The Washington Post issued staggered releases of the results of their latest poll, withholding from their first release results favorable to Sen. Barack Obama, including the finding that 50 percent of registered voters would vote for Obama for president versus 42 percent for Sen. John McCain. The next day, the Post ran an article headlined "Poll Finds Voters Split on Candidates' Iraq-Pullout Positions," which did not mention Obama's 8-point lead over McCain. Later that day, ABC News and the Post issued a second release with additional poll results that stated: "Obama continues to hold most of the advantages in the presidential race."

In disclosing the results of their poll, conducted July 10-13, ABC News and The Washington Post issued staggered releases, withholding from their first release on July 14 poll results favorable to Sen. Barack Obama, including the finding that 50 percent of registered voters would vote for Obama "f the 2008 presidential election were being held today" versus 42 percent who favored Sen. John McCain. A partial release of the results, "embargoed for release after 6:30 p.m. Monday, July 14, 2008," was titled "McCain Stays Competitive on Iraq; It's About More than Withdrawal" and disclosed the results of only 10 questions relating to foreign policy. Among the results, the release noted: 72 percent of respondents think McCain would be "a good commander-in-chief," compared with 48 percent for Obama; "50 percent of Americans prefer Obama's plan to withdraw most U.S. forces within 16 months of taking office," compared with 49 percent who side with McCain's position; 47 percent of respondents said they trust McCain more on Iraq, while 45 percent prefer Obama; and 51 percent of Americans "now say the U.S. campaign against the Taliban and al Qaeda there has been unsuccessful." Following the July 14 release, ABCNews.com posted an analysis of only the foreign policy poll results under the headline "McCain Tops Obama in Commander-in-Chief Test; Stays Competitive on Iraq." Similarly, Time magazine senior political analyst Mark Halperin linked to the ABCNews.com analysis using the headline: "Poll: McCain Wins More Confidence as Commander in Chief." In a July 15 article headlined "Poll Finds Voters Split on Candidates' Iraq-Pullout Positions," the Post reported only the poll results disclosed in the first release. The article did not mention Obama's 8-point lead over McCain among registered voters on who they would vote for "f the 2008 presidential election were being held today."

rest of the article @ link: http://mediamatters.org/items/200807170011

[goclark]

1. This is the tip of the iceberg

The so called MSM should be tried at the Hague.

[Frank Booth]

6. "Tried at the Hague."

That sounds crazy, but in a way it's true.

Except for Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and a few others, the American media has caused more harm to this world over the past 8 years than just about anyone else.

[EV_Ares]

9. Glad to hear someone say that. I agree, after all the power and the responsibility of a free and

fair press is the most important in keeping a democracy in freedom. Look at what has occurred in our nation, the corporations who are beholden to the republicans and fast are actually getting entrenched in the democratic party are the ones running our elections. They do this through advertising, lobbyists, money of course and they pretty much, there are 8 now I think that have control of the media. This is like AT&T, Time Warner, Disney, etc. Now, they even build the voting machines that count our votes and they have managed to see that there is no paper trail

So, I guess the question is how do we put a stop to this and get our free press and elections back? We need a lot of Dennis Kucinichs' for one and Barack is supposedly going to act on the conglomerates controlling the media. We will see.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Without the Internet, we'd have no truthful news. None.

Which is why Net Neutrality is so important.
Obama plans to address that and media consolidation, this last of which is largely to blame for the trash that we're fed.



If the Big Eight media conglomerates gobble up any more ISPs, we're in deep doodoo.

In 2002 the Nation publish a great guide to the Big Ten, now it's Eight.

http://www.thenation.com/special/bigten.html

:kick:

[EV_Ares]

3. Thanks for that link, I get The Nation but had missed that, eom.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Look how far the Washington Post has fallen.

I weep for their shameful descent.

You know there is only one reason why they keep the numbers so close. To make it easier to sell a theft of an election. If there was a fifteen point spread, it would be more difficult to sell a flip in the numbers. That's why they did away with exit polls, IMHO.

[janet118]

5. Media Matters rules . . .

They keep their eyes on the ball when the rest of us can't stomach monitoring the media perfidy. That Brock guy turned out to be okay, eh?

Contribute if you can. It's tax deductible. Media Matters donations

[Franks Wild Years]

7. This is why you can't trust the polls in which the race is close.

It's simple, and the reasons for them doing this are entirely transparent. If they creater a close race, they have a much broader canvas on which to do their work.

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. And it's easier to keep the masses quiet when the wrong guy "wins". I mean if a guy

or gal had HUGE popularity numbers and still lost, then people are going to smell something rotten. Stage everything just right and you can lie, cheat, and steal your way into the Oval office.

[AnneD]

8. They are only fooling themselves.....

and trying to fool us. They are fast becoming irrelevant.

[applegrove]

10. I hope they are ashamed.

[CoffeeCat]

11. This is deeply, deeply disturbing...

They're going to try and steal this election. Hiding these favorable Obama polls makes
that possible. If the media constantly tells the truth about Obama leading significantly
in the polls, how can they steal it?

Geez. Is there any hope at all?

In my opinion, they're all ready ramping up to steal it. Hiding the truth about Obama
winning is just the first step in securing the theft.

If McCain wins...all of our nightmares will come true. The things we've been saying will
happen--will happen. Say hello to "V For Vendetta" because we'll all be there.

I see news like this and I can barely breath, because the worst seems inevitable.

Sorry to be so dismal, but it's obvious what they're doing, and if anyone doubted that
they would try to steal it--hiding these poll numbers should erase that doubt.

Sad. Just really sad.

[Franks Wild Years]

13. Absolutely.

They ONLY way to avoid such a scenario is for Obama to continue smashing the recent notion of what it means to be 'presidential' into submission. If he continues to score massive goals with trips and meetings with foreign politicians in which every last drop of impression he leaves is positive, it ruins their game. It fucks it into the ground if it gets to the stage where even the mass media have to offer largely positive coverage.