My letter to NPR re: Day to Day story on polling & swing voters

[democraticinsurgent]

"NPR's Mike Pesca reports on what unexpected shifts in opinion polls may reveal about which way America's swing voters will go in the upcoming presidential election."

The above is your description of the story from the Day to Day website. What a lousy, misleading story!

Reporter Mike Pesca utilized three recent polls--Time, Newsweek and Gallup--to illustrate that Bush got a 7-12 point bounce post-RNC Convention. But these polls illustrated leads, not actual shifts. Gallup's bounce--the increase in Bush voters--was 2%. Time went from 48 to 53 to 54% Bush in its three most recent polls. A bounce of no more than 6 points. Newsweek hadn't polled since 7/29 and it did show a 10 point bounce. But it is the only one of the three that fits your quoted bounce range.

Those three polls are also outliers. Most other polls showed Kerry behind by a few points or tied; generally within the margin of error.

The fact that Pesca used only these polls to illustrate his point was bad enough, but consider further:

- Time and Newsweek's polls were taken DURING the convention where most Republicans were at home and watching the convention. Democrats, naturally, were less inclined to be home during this time. So the samples heavily over-represented Republicans relative to the accepted proportions of D's, R's and I's.

- Those three polls are well out of date now. Most recent polls show a close race, some have Kerry in the lead. Yet the reporter slipped in the line about "taps being played for the Kerry campaign". Hardly fair when the bounce--if it really existed--appears to be completely gone and the race is again tied.

- You quote John Zogby on his observation of a 10 point bounce, but you don't mention his poll results: Bush by 3. So while Zogby saw a ten point shift in his own polling--a valid point if you'd made it that way--you don't show that the race is close by Zogby's measurement.

The reporter also concluded that Kerry got no bounce from the Democratic convention, when most polling following the DNC showed that Kerry had received at least a 3-5 point bounce.

This is a deliberately slanted story among many right-slanted stories I've been hearing this election season on NPR, especially on Day to Day.

I used to trust and count on NPR for my news, but no more. Your network is worse than Fox, in that at least everyone knows Fox is biased and right-wing. Too many people still think that NPR and CNN are centrist or even liberal and are sucked in by your biased stories, shallow reporting, balancing the truth with right-wing lies, and sheer laziness.

You should be ashamed. Very ashamed.

[patrice]

1. Thanks! It breaks my heart to see what has been happening at NPR.

GOOD analysis!

[democraticinsurgent]

3. thanks to both of you

and welcome to DU, seanQ!

It's a very sad situation. NPR must have gotten tired of being called liberal. They never investigated the 9/11 mysteries and cheered the Iraq war along with everyone else.

And now they're on the front lines for our selected pResident who has absolutely no objective reason to be re-selected.

One thing is very important: that people find out NPR and CNN have gone over to the dark side. If you are heavy consumers of either/both, you cannot CANNOT get the truth and yet you think you are getting it.

[SeanQ]

2. Thanks for sending that letter!

And for posting it here!

[newyawker99]

4. Hi SeanQ!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Cookie wookie]

5. Excellent letter

Thanks from someone who has listened to nothing but NPR since the 2000 election. Didn't have Air America until just now (Hooray -- I've permanently changed my car radio dial).

I've been witnessing the shift in their reporting over time and becoming more and more distressed, kept thinking I'd write and then not doing it. Some of their slanted programming, like the Cokie Roberts trash, is unbearable to listen to. Especially when they have programming that just isn't true, like a "commentary" they did about how evoting was as safe and really the same as banking at an ATM.... I thought to myself, do they not bother to check any more to see if their commentary is supported by facts or have they become the purveyor of radio fantasy like everyone else.

Well, thank god Air America has come to save us in Atlanta. Commuting will finally be bearable.