Topic: Media Research Center
We've documented how, after the 2020 presidential election, the Media Research Center lashed out at polls showing Donald Trump badly losing the election, screeching without evidence the polls were "intentionally wrong" as a part of its conspiracy theory that the election was stolen from Trump based, ironically, on biased polls it bought from Trump's election pollster and the polling firm founded by Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway -- but not long afterwards, they embraced without question polls from many of the same places showing President Biden not doing well. Over the past year, the MRC has continued to hype polls that make Biden look bad. For instance:
- ABC Poll Shows Trump Beating Biden, Karl Befuddled by Results ("It seems like every week more polling is released that shows President Biden underwater and his prospects for reelection in freefall")
- ABC Tries to Spin Bad Biden Poll as a Wash, Lobs Softballs at Treasury Secretary Yellen
- PBS Gives Softball Interview to Biden, Stumped on Low Poll Numbers
- Mika Brzezinski: President Biden Is 'Extremely Well-Liked' (Who Needs Polls?)
- WOW: CBS & NBC Highlight Bad Polling, Voter Concerns Over Biden's Age
- 'Just Brutal': ABC Stunned by Biden Getting Clobbered by Trump in Poll
- PBS Ignores Own Poll Showing 62% of Voters Worried About Biden's Mental Fitness
- WashPost Buries Poll with Half of Blacks Saying Biden Policies 'Made No Difference'
- NBC News Poll Finds Low Confidence in President Biden’s Mental Fitness
- MEDIA FAIL: New CBS News Poll Shows Most Americans Think ‘Bidenomics’ Sucks
- Todd Frets Biden's Collapsing Poll Numbers: Looks Like Hillary in 2016
When others treated bad Biden polls like the MRC treated bad Trump polls, the MRC hypocritically objected. Mark Finkelstein complained in a Sept. 8 post:
Oh, the irony! Employing a famous James Carville phrase, on Friday's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough warned there'd be a lot of Democrat "bedwetting" over a CNN presidential poll showing Biden losing to Trump (and to almost all the other Republican contenders).
But Scarborough and his comrades on the panel then, obliviously, proceeded to besprinkle the linens themselves!
Historian and occasional Biden speechwriter Jon Meacham led off the leaky parade. Stamping his figurative feet, Meacham flatly declared, "I don't believe these polls, honestly."
Scarborough - after big-footing Mika who had tried to end the segment - and Mara Gay of the New York Times similarly cast doubts and aspersions on the poll. Gay even broke out the old chestnut that polls are "just a snapshot in time!"
And don't forget, Mara: the only poll that counts is the one on Election Day!
As for Scarborough, he resorted to the fingers-in-the-ears technique of blotting out bad news, admitting that he recently told a reporter, " I just -- you know what? Just, I don't want to hear the polls. I don't want to hear 'em."
Finkelstein didn't mention the irony of he and his employer flip-flopping on polls when they reinforce certain political narratives.
Jeffrey Lord touted the poll in his Sept. 9 column, noting that CNN is "famously a left leaning media outlet" and thus, should be taken seriously (unlike all those other times when Lord and the rest of the MRC lashed out at CNN):
The real question now is whether CNN, post its recent leadership changes, is determined to be about just-the-news as it is - no matter how it reflects on either Joe Biden or any other liberal favorite of the moment?
In fact, as the nation heads into the cauldron that will be the 2024 election, with a GOP opposition raising countless questions about the decidedly shady Biden family business, his age, mental condition and more, will CNN be on the job reporting the facts? And if so, is that, as Hannity has also put it, the canary in the coal mine that says liberals are getting seriously uncomfortable with Biden and want him out of the race?
Or is it a return to the straight up just-the-facts journalism that made CNN what it was when it first appeared on the scene as created by founder Ted Turner?
Alex Christy complained in a Sept. 12 post when another poll was questioned:
Reacting to the news that Speaker Kevin McCarthy has authorized an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden on Tuesday’s Inside Politics on CNN, host Dana Bash blamed “the consuming of media” for a poll that showed 61 percent of Americans believe Joe Biden was involved with his son Hunter’s business operations and not because of any evidence. Ironically, later in the show, Bash would change into a sweater that read “be truthful, not neutral.”
P.J. Gladnick used a Sept. 15 post to mock an MSNBC column called "How not to have a psychic meltdown when you see new Trump-Biden poll numbers," neglecting to mention that the MRC's psychic meltdown over bad Trump numbers in 2020 involved accusing the pollsters of making up the numbers -- a malicious accusation for which, again, it has never provided a scintilla of evidence to support.
That's not to say the MRC doesn't still attack polls that don't fit its partisan narratives. Clay Waters spent an Aug. 8 post being angry that "Two publicly funded media outlets, National Public Radio and the PBS NewsHour, sponsored a Marist poll to find out how Republicans feel about an issue the press has decided is urgent -- 'climate change.' To their horror, it found Republicans would rather preserve living standards for humans rather than throw their money with the aim of somehow stopping the temperature from rising." Waters couldn't actually attack the poll outright -- Marist is a respected pollster, after all -- so he tried to hint at credibility issues by pointing out that PBS and NPR are "publicly funded," though he didn't explain the actual relevance of doing so.
