The Blue Site

More Distorted Use of Filibuster Polls (MRC Reports on NBC)

MRC Reports the same thing I keep saying...pointing out the democrats use of bogus, twisted, and distorted polls to bolster their claims...

----------------------
NBC Trumpets Distorted Poll on Opposition to Ending Filibuster

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams trumpeted Wednesday night how "a brand new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll" shows "that by a margin of 56 to 34, Americans want the Senate to weigh in on the President's judicial nominees rather than giving them blanket approval" -- as if that's at issue. In fact, no one is calling for "blanket approval" since, if the filibusters against judicial nominees were eliminated, those now blocked would still have to earn the backing of the majority of Senators, just like every other judge the Senate has ever approved. On Thursday's Today, Matt Lauer highlighted for Tim Russert the same irrelevant question, but then Lauer cryptically referred to how the public was "evenly split pretty much on the whole filibuster issue." Indeed, in a poll question NBC Nightly News ignored, and for which Today provided no further detail, respondents split 32 opposed versus 31 in support (with 19 neutral and 13 not caring) on whether they backed Congress in "considering putting an end to the Senate's filibuster procedure" for "judicial nominees."

Williams led the May 18 NBC Nightly News: "Good evening. For days here we've been talking about the threat of the U.S. Senate going nuclear, as they call it, ending the use of the filibuster to block votes on judges used by both sides for years. To try and head that off, last night and all day today, a few senators have been doing what they do best: They've locked themselves in a meeting where they've been trying to hammer out a deal, something they think the American people would prefer. Well, tonight, some new numbers are out and a brand new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, they show that by a margin of 56 to 34, Americans want the Senate to weigh in on the President's judicial nominees rather than giving them blanket approval. But can the Senate keep from going nuclear? We'll begin there tonight with NBC's Chip Reid on Capitol Hill for us..."

As Williams spoke, viewers saw a graphic with a vague description of the poll question: "Confirming Judges? President's Nominee: 34% Senate Decides: 56%"

Thursday morning on Today, Tim Russert appeared from Washington, DC to go over many topics in the poll. Matt Lauer cued up Russert: "The issue on the front burner, this morning, judicial nominees, when asked about the Senate's role in confirming federal judges, 34 percent said they think the Senate should generally confirm the President's judicial nominees, 56 percent said the Senate should make its own decision. They were evenly split pretty much on the whole filibuster issue. So what does this tell us about how voters are going to react if that so-called 'nuclear option' is taken?"

Today displayed this graphic: "Senate & Judicial Nominees Confirm President's Choice: 34% Make Own Decision: 56%"

MSNBC.com's article about the poll provides no quotations of the actual questions and MSNBC.com never posts rundowns of polls as do ABCNews.com and CBSNews.com. MSNBC.com's story on the poll: www.msnbc.msn.com

The Wall Street Journal, however, this morning posted a PDF of the questions and results in the poll conducted by Democratic pollster Peter Hart and Republican pollster Bill McInturff.

Question #11 was the one highlighted by Williams and Lauer, and the specific text of it confirms how it posed a question irrelevant to whether the public supports or opposes ending judicial filibusters: "When there are vacancies in the federal court system, should the Senate generally confirm the President's judicial nominees as long as they are honest and competent, or should the Senate make its own decision about the fitness of each nominee to serve?
"Should generally confirm President's nominees: 34%
"Should make its own decision: 56%"

The next question informed those polled: "I am going to read you a series of actions that have recently been in the news. For each one, please tell me whether you generally support this action, generally oppose this action, feel neutral about this action, or whether you do not care about this action."

One of those topics in the list: "Congress considering putting an end to the Senate's filibuster procedure, which requires sixty senators rather than fifty-one to end debate and hold a confirmation vote for judicial nominees."
Support: 31%
Oppose: 32%

For the PDF with the full survey results: online.wsj.com

Previous CyberAlert items on media hype for distorted polls regarding the blocking of Democratic filibusters:

# April 26 CyberAlert: ABC and the Washington Post touted how a new poll found two-thirds opposed to a rul change to end Democratic filibusters of judicial nominees, but the language of the question led to the media's desired answer. "An ABC News poll has found little support for changing the Senate's rules to help the President's judicial nominees win confirmation," World News Tonight anchor Charles Gibson trumpeted Monday night. The Washington Post's lead front page headline, over a Tuesday story on the poll, declared: "Filibuster Rule Change Opposed." But the questions in the poll failed to point out the unprecedented use of a filibuster to block nominees who have majority support while they forwarded the Democratic talking point that "the Senate has confirmed 35 federal appeals court judges nominated by Bush" and painted rules changes as an effort "to make it easier for the Republicans to confirm Bush's judicial nominees," not as a way to overcome Democratic obstructionism. See: www.mediaresearch.org

# April 27 CyberAlert: FNC's Brit Hume on Tuesday night pointed out how the wording of a Washington Post/ABC News poll led to its finding of overwhelming opposition to blocking Democratic filibusters of judicial nominees, an observation made in Tuesday's CyberAlert, and Hume noted how differently-worded polls led to opposite results. "If you doubt whether the framing of a poll question can influence the outcome," Hume asked, "consider this. When a Republican poll said quote, 'Even if they disagree with a judge, Senate Democrats should at least allow he President's nominations to be voted on,' 81 percent said they agreed." In addition, a Rasmussen survey found that when asked "should the Senate rules should be changed so that a vote must be taken on every person that the President nominates to become a judge?", 56 percent responded affirmatively. See: www.mediaresearch.org

# April 28 CyberAlert: In a Wednesday online chat session, Washington Post National Editor Michael Abramowitz defended Washington Post/ABC News poll questions which CyberAlert and others argued had wording which inevitably led to the finding that an overwhelming majority oppose blocking Democratic filibusters of judicial nominees when other polls have found the opposite. "Filibuster Rule Change Opposed," declared the April 26 Washington Post lead front page headline even though the questions did not mention filibusters. Abramowitz maintained that the Post's polling chief, Rich Morin, "is scrupulously fair." Abramowitz asserted: "I thought the questions in this case were fine." Morin defended himself: "I believe the question does not plant biases that would unfairly favor Democrats or disadvantage Bush or the Republicans." www.mediaresearch.org

# May 2 CyberAlert: In defending the wording of a Washington Post poll, which the paper plastered at the top of Tuesday's front page under the headline, "Filibuster Rule Change Opposed," Washington Post Ombudsman Micheal Getler cited a March Newsweek poll which also found majority opposition to ending Senate filibusters of judicial nominees. But that poll's formulation was just as slanted as the Post poll's wording, in contrast to a Rasmussen poll, that Getler didn't acknowledge, which used wording that led to a finding of opposition to the Democratic tactic. The Newsweek poll inaccurately told those surveyed that the filibuster "tactic has been used by both Democrats and Republicans to prevent certain judicial nominees from being confirmed." Like the Post poll, Newsweek treated Republicans as the ones wanting to use a political maneuver to their benefit: "Senate Republican leaders, whose party is now in the majority, want to take away this tactic by changing the rules to require only 51 votes..." See: www.mediaresearch.org

# May 3 CyberAlert: Another distorted poll on the use of the filibuster by Senate Democrats to block judicial nominees. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday afternoon described how the filibuster tactic can be "used to prevent the Senate from passing controversial legislation or confirming controversial appointments by the President, even if a majority of Senators support that action." But then instead of posing the question at hand, whether the public agrees with the unprecedented Democratic use of the filibuster to deny votes to appeals court nominees, the poll posed a broader question not at hand: "Do you favor or oppose the use of the filibuster in the U.S. Senate?" Most, naturally, favored it as CNN's Bruce Morton relayed in a Monday Inside Politics story, as if eliminating the filibuster was an issue in play. See: www.mediaresearch.org

Later on Wednesday's NBC Nightly News, Tim Russert ran through some other numbers in the poll. (On Thursday's Today, NBC put "An Unhappy America?" on screen when he ran through them with Lauer.)

Williams set him up, as taken down by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth: "At the top of the broadcast, we mentioned our new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. There are more new numbers out tonight, and with those, our Washington Bureau Chief, moderator of Meet the Press, Tim Russert, is with us. Tim, how are people feeling about the direction of their nation and the man running it?"
Russert checked in from Washington, DC with on-screen graphics to list the numbers he recited: "It's not good news, Brian. Let's look at right track/wrong track: 35 percent of Americans, just 35 say the country's on the right track, 52 wrong track. The President's approval rating, approve 47, disapprove 47, a very low number for George Bush at this point in his second term."
Williams: "Tim, what are the issues that are driving these numbers?"
Russert: "You will not be surprised. First, the economy: 20 percent believe we're better off, 42 percent say we are worse off when it comes to the economy. Compare that to January '05 when it was 31, 28, just the other way. Social Security, the President's been on the road, Brian, trying to sell his plan. Is the President's plan a good idea? 36 percent say yes, 56 percent say bad idea, and amongst voters over 50, over 60 percent think the President's idea of personal private accounts a bad idea. And the war in Iraq, now a clear majority believes it was not worth the price. 51 percent, not worth it, only 40 percent worth it."
Williams: "Tim, with so much of the attention on the U.S. Senate over the past few days, how are folks feeling about their elected representatives in all?"
Russert: "Even worse news for Congress. Only 33 percent of Americans, just one out of three, believe Congress is doing a good job. 51 percent disapprove, that's a six-point drop in approval from just one month ago. And, Brian, we asked people if the 2000 congressional elections were being held right now, the 2006 elections, 47 percent would vote for Democrats, 40 percent Republican. That's a seven-point bulge. That's very significant at this stage of the race. It's still early, but it is a real warning sign for the Republicans, who control both houses of Congress."
----------------------

To prove how absurd NBC NEWS' reporting on this is- if you go to the MSNBC page for this story, the caption at the very top of the story says this:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., speaks to reporters in the Capitol about judicial nominees on Tuesday. The latest NBC-Wall Street Journal Poll indicates that a majority of voters believes the Senate should make its own decision about the president’s judicial nominees, rather than just confirming them.

Well hell, if you report it that way, no wonder you get the poll numbers you get. Not to mention, an electorate that is overwhelmingly ignorant as to what is actually going on. No one on either side of the aisle is demanding that the Senate just confirm them all without any debate. Only in the mind of a biased reporter (who has no business reporting in the first place) would "give them a vote one way or another" somehow equal "just confirm them all." The entire piece is invalidated by reading the caption at the top of the page, before even reading a single word of the story! That's bad reporting with a HUGE capital "b"!!

Note to media- get your acts together or go away...for good.

Do you feel guilty about "writing" posts that are 90% taken from other sources? Like, copied-and-pasted? Writers parse relevant information and present it with their own language and thought process. They don't paste things they find "interesting," and then add some smarmy commentary at the end. Well, real writers don't. I guess this is the blogosphere, though. Any nutball with a DSL can have his voice heard.

seriously drunk/weed smoking boy

you really need to get a life and stop stalking me.

clearly you cannot read, since you say i copy and paste and 90%
of what is here is by someone else, since if you look at the
front page- besides this one, its 99% mine.

maybe youre currently high on something and its affecting your
perception of reality. if thats the case, sober up then talk.
wait...maybe youre SO high that youre calling up random people
and doing your own polling? oh gosh, well thats changes
everything.