More Dishonest Poll Intrepretation from the WaPo, Just for Fun and Propaganda

posted by Bill Arnett @ 10:53 AM Permalink

From that bastion of dishonesty, half-truths, and stenographic quality reading, the WaPo, comes this gem:

President Bush is a competitive guy. But this is one contest he would rather lose. With 18 months left in office, he is in the running for most unpopular president in the history of modern polling.

The latest Washington Post-ABC News survey shows that 65 percent of Americans disapprove of Bush's job performance, matching his all-time low. In polls conducted by The Post or Gallup going back to 1938, only once has a president exceeded that level of public animosity -- and that was Richard M. Nixon, who hit 66 percent four days before he resigned.

The historic depth of Bush's public standing has whipsawed his White House, sapped his clout, drained his advisers, encouraged his enemies and jeopardized his legacy.[…]

And the president's team takes solace in the fact that the public holds Congress in low esteem, too. More than half disapproved of Congress generally, and Democrats in particular, in the latest Post-ABC survey, though their ratings were still better than Bush's.

This last paragraph in bold is a perfect demonstration of how a half-truth and an outright lie can be and are used to dishonestly attempt to discredit congress with bush/cheney propaganda.

Here are the true facts regarding this last paragraph and the standing of the Republicans and Democrats in Congress.

A blanket statement is made, "…More than half disapproved of Congress generally, and Democrats in particular…" which is disproved by the newspapers own statistics, which are these:

a. the Republicans in Congress
Approve: 34 Disapprove: 64 No opinion: 2
b. the Democrats in Congress
Approve: 46 Disapprove 51 No Opinion: 2

So here the misleading is exposed for what it is, a gross misinterpretation of their own polling data, as is rather clearly obvious.

The half truth? "…More than half disapproved of Congress generally," while in reality 64% disapproves of the Republicans in Congress, almost a super-majority of those polled. But that wasn't reported.

Instead of: "…More than half disapproved of Congress generally, and Democrats in particular…," the truth here, according to their own numbers is that a bare majority of only 51% disapproves of the Democrats in Congress.

It is therefore crystal clear that the GOP in Congress has much less support than the Democrats in Congress, making the statement highlighted here false. To represent this issue honestly the statement should have read something similar to: "A 64% super-majority of those polled disapproves of the Republicans in Congress, while the Democrats polled only a bare majority disapproval rate of 51%, they have a much greater approval rate of 46% compared to a dismal 34% approval rate of the Republicans in Congress."

But that would have involved truth in reporting wouldn't it? And by now almost everyone who examines statements made and compares them to the polling data knows that stats are probably some of the most easily and deliberately misrepresented facts, just as they are clearly misrepresented here by the WaPo.

Clearly, using their own numbers, the public mildly disapproves of Democrats in Congress, generally, but the public really disapproves of Republicans in Congress by a wide margin. 100% diametrically opposed from the WaPo propaganda report made in behalf of the maladministration.

Really, these people should be embarrassed by their half-truths, outright lies. and misrepresentations of facts.

Labels: conspiracy, corruption, GOP, mainstream media, propaganda