Misleading Poll Question Doesn't Stop Respondents from Favoring AZ Immigration Law

Documenting and Exposing the Liberal Political Agenda of the New York Times
Tuesday May 04, 2010 @ 03:49 PM EDT

Obama the Pragmatist, Tea Party on 'Far Right'

Jackie Calmes says Obama "supporters" calls him a "pragmatist" - but so does the New York Times. She also puts the Tea Party movement on the "far right."

The Times Salutes Bill Moyers, Hard-Left 'Lion of PBS,' Finds Few Critics
The paper's usual labeling imbalance was on display in how it treated left-wing vs right-wing critics of PBS.

Misleading Poll Question Doesn't Stop Respondents from Favoring AZ Immigration Law
The Times initially spun a 60%-36% pro-enforcement gap as a "slim margin." And the law doesn't give “gives police the power to question anyone they suspect is in the country illegally,” as the misleading NYT/CBS News poll question claims, but requires reasonable suspicion of such by a policeman, coupled with a “lawful stop, detention or arrest.”

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Obama the Pragmatist, Tea Party on 'Far Right'

Reporter Jackie Calmes claimed in Tuesday's Obama-pitying “For Obama, A Nonstop Juggling Act” that his “supporters” call him a pragmatist. So does that make Times reporters Obama supporters as well? And is the Tea Party really “far right”?

By his own reckoning, Mr. Obama has always been hard to peg ideologically. His Republican opponents charge that he is masking a left-wing agenda in centrist-sounding words.

His supporters, including those who work for him, say he is a pragmatist whose instincts are genuinely centrist, both as a matter of politics and style.

The Times also constantly sells its readers on the idea that the big-spending, socially liberal Obama is some kind of moderate “pragmatist.”

Calmes continued the questionable labeling:

And just as Mr. Obama has ratcheted up his own populist attacks against corporate self-interest and Wall Street’s return to business as usual, so did Roosevelt become more vocally populist as re-election neared and he faced demagogic opposition. That included the likes of Senator Huey Long of Louisiana, the radio broadcaster Father Charles Coughlin and a domestic Communist Party making inroads on the left, much like the Tea Party movement today on the far right.

Jonah Goldberg, author of “Liberal Fascism,” will appreciate a journalist accurately placing Coughlin on the left. But is the Tea Party really deserve the unflattering “far right” imprimatur? The Times rarely if ever uses the term “far left” to describe a slice of the American electorate.

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The Times Salutes Bill Moyers, Hard-Left 'Lion of PBS,' Finds Few Critics

Two Times stories related to the (perhaps temporary) retirement of PBS's left-wing sage Bill Moyers both soft-pedaled the host's weekly attacks on business and government issued from his money-lined, taxpayer-funded PBS perch.

Elizabeth Jensen's contribution to the Sunday Arts page asked a question perhaps only the Times' liberal readership is asking: “How, Exactly, Do You Follow Bill Moyers?”

Jensen focused on left-wing complaints about Newsweek editor Jon Meachem, the host of the program replacing Moyers' “Now on PBS,” without ever delving into conservative complaints about Moyers and his history of neo-Marxist rhetoric delivered in a jus'-folks Texas accent. Moyers was merely called “the lion of PBS.” Not even the “liberal lion.”

While Meachem's left-wing critics from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting were merely termed an “advocacy group” by Jensen, she found that Meachem was also a “frequent target of conservatives, who decry what they say are Newsweek's 'liberal' leanings.”

Jensen forwarded complaints from unlabeled left-wingers:

“Need to Know,” which will tape at a new studio at Lincoln Center, arrives to plenty of apprehension from PBS viewers, thousands of whom, riled up by the advocacy group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, have already protested. Their fear: the new hourlong show will fail to live up to the programs it is replacing: “Bill Moyers Journal” and “Now on PBS,” which ran a combined 90 minutes. Mr. Moyers, the lion of PBS, wanted, at 75, to step back from the grind of a weekly show, and was set to sign off on Friday, promising to return with specials. “Now” was cancelled.

In a March 25 online column Michael Getler, the PBS ombudsman, called the new program “a pretty big gamble for PBS” given the “fear, as expressed by many viewers in recent months, that PBS may be pulling in its horns and shying away from controversy.” One letter writer said, “I have the distinct impression that PBS is moving towards kinder, gentler documentary programming so as to avoid offending the powerful and upsetting the political right.” Another complained of Mr. Meacham’s “right-of-center stance on world events,” as evidenced in Newsweek, of which he is the editor.

Mr. Meacham, the winner of a 2009 Pulitzer Prize for his biography “American Lion: Andrew Jackson and the White House,” dismissed talk of his supposed partisan leanings: “I’m a journalist and a biographer who calls them as I see them.” Mr. Meacham, who is a regular on MSNBC -- where he mostly stays out of the fray when the partisan shouting gets too intense -- is a frequent target of conservatives, who decry what they say are Newsweek’s “liberal” leanings.

Media reporter Brian Stelter briefly acknowledged the conservative beef with Moyers, but fell down on the labeling front in his Monday Arts page story.

Mr. Moyers has long been a controversial figure. In a column in the May 10 issue of The Nation, the media columnist Eric Alterman called Mr. Moyers the “last unapologetic liberal anywhere in broadcast television.” Conservative critics have long accused Mr. Moyers and his programs of being one-sided.

Again the Times skimped on the “liberal” label. While Stelter couldn't spare a “liberal” or “left-wing” label for the hard-left Nation magazine, he managed to uncover unidentified “conservative critics”of Moyers.

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Misleading Poll Question Doesn't Stop Respondents from Favoring AZ Immigration Law

The latest New York Times/CBS News poll focused on Arizona's tough new anti-illegal immigration law, summarized in a story by Randal Archibold and Megan Thee-Brenan that only made the top of the National section, not the usual front-page placement for a poll story.

At least the print headline was strong: “Poll Finds Serious Concern Among Americans About Immigration.” Here's the lead, slanted toward the protesters point of view:

The overwhelming majority of Americans think the country’s immigration policies need to be seriously overhauled. And despite protests against Arizona’s stringent new immigration enforcement law, a majority of Americans support it, even though they say it may lead to racial profiling.

When the poll was first posted at nytimes.com Monday evening, a teaser headline claimed that only a “slim majority” favored the immigration law, but that was misleading if technically accurate. There was nothing “slim” about the actual results.

51% say the law "is about right,” while only 36% said it “goes too far,” while another 9% said it “doesn’t go far enough.” In other words, 60% agree with the thrust of the law, with only 36% thinking it goes too far. (The “slim” modifier was dropped from Tuesday's print edition.)

Not even the liberal slant of the question posed by the Times and CBS stopped the public from showing strong support for Arizona's law. (There's a .PDF version of the poll here.)

Here's question 67:

67. As you may know, the state of Arizona recently passed a law that gives police the power to question anyone they suspect is in the country illegally, requires people to produce documents verifying their status if asked, and allows officers to detain anyone who cannot do so. Do you think this law goes too far, doesn’t go far enough, or is about right?

Actually, the law doesn't give “gives police the power to question anyone they suspect is in the country illegally.” It requires reasonable suspicion of such by a policeman, coupled with a “lawful stop, detention or arrest.” Even then, people favored tougher enforcement by a substantial margin. One can't help but suspect the poll would have gotten front-page play if the numbers had been reversed.

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