The folks at MSNBC must hate Republicans even more than I thought (which is no small accomplishment).

What else could explain the fact that they allowed as twisted an article as this one to go up on their web site?

Here is the headline, and first sentence, of MSNBC contributor Alicia Maule\’s “analysis” of the latest NBC/Washington Post poll:

Poll:Americans disapprove of Republican Party

Anew WashingtonPost-ABC poll found that 72% of Americans “strongly”disapprove of the Republican party – yet the GOP could still takecontrol of the Senate after the upcoming midterm elections.

Ok, stop right there.

Every headline-only reader, and every reader who assumes the first sentence provides the gist of the article, “knows” that – despite what they have heard from other sources – Republicans are avidly disliked but the public, mindless imbeciles that they are, might vote for them anyway.

Except…..

-The poll shows that while 72% disapprove of the Republican Party to one degree or another, 61% disapprove of the Democrat Party as well.  So, although there is a difference between the two, both parties are down the tubes approval-wise;

-The 72% “strongly disapprove” claim is a complete misreading of the poll.  If you use the link provided above, go to that question, and click on the detail, you\’ll find that strong disapproval of Republicans is 47% (49% among registered voters).  Not good, but a far cry from the 72% Ms. Maule misread.

-Then, if you do the same for Democrats, you\’ll find that 39% of the sample strongly disapproves (41% among registered voters) – better than Republicans, but not by that much.

-And, although party affiliation is not available on the link, if you click here and scroll to page 29 you will see that the sample consists of 33% Democrats and only 23% Republicans – which means that the poll\’s oversampling of Democrats may well account for the entire difference.

I would love to know who checked this article before MSNBC put it out for the world to see.  Maybe his/her previous job was writing speeches for President Obama, during the time he told us ISIS was “the jayvee squad”.

In any event, it is wrong.  Very wrong. 

I stopped reading Ms. Maule\’s article after checking that first finding, because I was left with no confidence any of the rest of it would be more accurate than it was. 

Maybe she should think about a rewrite, so it will be-right.  And maybe MSNBC should stash its hatred of all things Republican long enough to fact-check articles like this, so it doesn\’t come out looking as awful as it does here.