THERE\’S MEDIA BIAS, THERE\’S DAMNED MEDIA BIAS…AND THERE\’S CNN

There is certainly no shortage of media bias to blog about.  But some examples are so astonishing that you wonder if the purveyors of that bias think their audience is a bunch of brain-stems.

Here\’s one of them.

Yesterday, on CNN\’s “New Day” show, its wonderful “neutral” on-air talent reported results of the latest CNN/ORC poll.

One of the questions asked in this poll was: “Do you think relations between blacks and whites in the U.S. have gotten better, gotten worse, or stayed the same since Barack Obama became president?”

Here are the responses – for this wave of polling,  the previous wave – four months ago (February 12 – 15, 2015), and the first time it was asked – over 5 years ago (May 16 – 18, 2009):

June 26-28, 2015  

Response     All Americans       Blacks         Whites

 

Gotten better          20%             33%             17%                      

Gotten worse          43%             35%             47%

Stayed the same    36%             32%             35%

No Opinion                *                   *                   *

 

Feb. 12-15, 2015

 

Response     All Americans       Blacks         Whites

 

Gotten better          15%             25%             11%                      

Gotten worse          39%             26%             45%

Stayed the same   45%             47%             44%

No Opinion               1%               2%               *

 

May 16-18, 2009

 

Response     All Americans       Blacks         Whites

 

Gotten better          32%             37%             30%                      

Gotten worse            6%               2%               6%

Stayed the same   59%             60%             61%

No Opinion               2%               1%               3%

What do those data say to you?

 

How about that, at the beginning of Barack Obama\’s presidency – whether as the result of actual events or just due a positive “halo effect” for Mr. Obama – there was a great feeling that relations between Black and White citizens were improving…

 

…but by February of this year, that era of good feeling had evaporated and was now decidedly negative ….

 

…and as of this week, it had marginally improved over February, but was still far to the negative?

 

Does that appear to be a reasonable analysis?

 

Well, here – according to Brad Wilmouth\’s article at the invaluable source of uncovering media bias, newsbusters.org, is how CNN New Day co-host Jim Acosta reported it:

 One reason why that is, the President is getting better marks for how he\’s handling race relations. That is up five points. You see it there at 55 percent. Five points higher than it was last month. And people are also feeling better about how the President is handling race relations overall: 20 percent say they are better under President Obama, up five points from earlier this year.

Can someone tell me where that 55% came from? 

 

Assuming Mr Acosta is incapable of adding 20% and 36% together, it appears that he combined the “gotten better” and “stayed the same” results.  In other words, Mr. Acosta is telling his viewership that people who say race relations have neither gotten better or gotten worse somehow count as a plus for Mr. Obama. 

 

Why would that be?  Why would no improvement at all count in the plus column?  Why does it not simply stand by itself?  And, if it doesn\’t stand by itself, why is it not just as logically in the negative column as in the plus column?

 

Oh, and just in case you think Acosta\’s amazingly dishonest analysis (along with his co-host, Chris Cuomo, who had no problem with what he said) was a one-time little accidental “whoopsie”, be advised that Acosta repeated exactly the same BS two other times during the show.  Please use the link I\’ve provided above and see for yourself.

 

To summarize, the data show that: 

-At the beginning of Barack Obama\’s presidency,  32% of the country said race relations had gotten better since he took office versus 6% saying they had gotten worse — a difference of +26%;

 

-by February of this year, just 15% of the country said race relations had gotten better versus 39% saying they have gotten worse — a difference of -24%, and a difference of -50% from the beginning of his presidency;

 

-and now, 20% of the country says race relations have gotten better versus 33% saying they have gotten worse — a difference of -13%, and a difference of -39% from the beginning of his presidency.

This is what CNN is selling as good news…and hoping its viewership is sufficiently dumbed-down to believe it.

 

It is the equivalent of saying that a baseball team which had a 5 – 20 record for its first 25 games, then went 8 – 17 for its next 25 games, was now playing good ball.

 

I talk a lot about media bias in here.  This is why.