Corporate Media: WE decide for whom you will vote, you will obey

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

If you needed any further evidence of the corrupt arrogance of the corporate media, the past couple of weeks should have provided you with all the evidence you need. The corporate media says "WE decide for whom you will vote, you will obey."

The corporate media narrative was preconceived more than a year ago – Republicans are resurgent and will stage a comeback. This has grown into wild predictions of a Republican tidal wave that will sweep them back into power in November. (Historical note: I cannot find a single historical example of a "wave" election in which the electorate swung wildly back following a "wave" election after only 2 years. It has never happened).

Last week, the corporate media inundated us with news coverage about a Gallup Poll that showed Republicans were up 10 points in a generic ballot contest, "higher than any GOP advantage Gallup has measured." The corporate media spent hours and hours talking about it and used reams of paper and gallons of ink writing about it. Why? Because it supported their preconceived media narrative.

But as E.J. Dionne writes today in his column, Obama raises stakes and redefines debate for the midterm election:

The New Obama (or, rather, the resurrected Old Obama) will be up against a media story line whose self-sustaining quality was brought home by the treatment of Gallup poll findings over the past two months.

The media largely ignored a mid-July survey giving Democrats a six-point lead, then devoted huge blocks of print and airtime to last week's Gallup survey dramatizing conventional wisdom by showing Republicans ahead by a whopping 10 points — only to have Gallup come out this week with a poll showing Republicans and Democrats tied. All this raises the question of whether the only polls that matter are ones that reinforce preconceptions.

Yes it does, E.J. And the answer is "yes," the corporate media only reports polls that support their preconceived media narrative.

Has the new Gallup Poll from yesterday received the same level of attention as the poll from last week? No. Barely a mention. Why? Because it contradicts the corporate media's preconceived media narrative. Parties Tied at 46% in Generic Ballot for Congress:

These results are based on aggregated data from more than 1,650 registered voters surveyed Aug. 30-Sept. 5 as part of Gallup Daily tracking. The results reflect more competitive voting intentions than has been the case recently. Republicans' leads over Democrats among registered voters in three of the previous four weeks were the highest Gallup has measured for this midterm election campaign, and higher than any GOP advantage Gallup has measured in a midterm election year since 1942.

[snip]

Bottom Line

The latest Gallup update on 2010 voting preferences marks the first time in over a month at which Republicans have not held an advantage among registered voters on Gallup's weekly generic ballot update. This shift, coupled with the fact that Democrats led on the measure earlier in the summer, shows that voter sentiments are not immune to change. Hoping to prove this, Democrats from the president on down are gearing up to maximize their chances of keeping party control of the House, just as voter attention to the campaign is increasing after the Labor Day weekend.

The same corporate media narrative is occurring locally here in Arizona. GOP-friendly narrative pollster Scott Rasmussen has been working Arizona this year and feeding his narrative polls to Arizona media outlets who publish his every media release, with only the Arizona Republic publishing a semi-negative story about Scott Rasmussen earlier this year, and the Tucson Weekly usually including a disclaimer of sorts, like this one from yesterday. Rasmussen: Brewer's Debate Performance Leads To Surge Among Voters!:

OK, now we're really skeptical about Rasmussen surveys.

The latest report shows that Brewer actually picked up points after her disastrous debate performance and now leads Democrat Terry Goddard by 22 percentage points:

Despite her halting debate performance last week, Arizona Republican Governor Jan Brewer now earns 60% of the vote in her bid for reelection, her best showing in the race to date.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Arizona Voters shows Democratic Attorney General Terry Goddard with 38% support. One percent (1%) like some other candidate in the race, and another one percent (1%) are undecided.

The race remains Solid Republican in the Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 Gubernatorial Scorecard.

Rasmussen's narrative polling may finally have "jumped the shark" with this latest poll. It is not credible. How do I know? He claims that only 1% of respondents are undecided in this poll. This fails the "smell test." This poll is crap. There is always at least 10% undecided in every poll – they are the clueless still trying to decide for whom to vote the day after election day.

I have warned you previously about the junk polls produced by Rasmussen here Don't believe it: Rasmussen has become an outlier poll, here (Update) Don't believe it: Rasmussen has become an outlier poll, and here More on the outlier Rasmussen Reports polls.

I will reiterate what I said in Seriously? GOP "narrative" pollster Rasmussen is still being reported by "credible" news outlets?:

The lazy political media continue to dutifully report the Rasmussen Reports "top line" poll numbers from press releases without ever questioning the scientifically flawed methodology of this outlier poll, or at least including an appropriate disclaimer that the poll numbers are no more accurate than the daily horoscope in the newspaper. It is for entertainment purposes only.

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So the news media is selling us GOP-biased propaganda as "news reporting" of inaccurate poll numbers because the media will not spend money for a credible poll. Stephen Colbert labeled this "truthiness": a "truth" a person claims to know intuitively "from the gut" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination or facts – and in this case, scientifically proven methodology.

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Just stop! Stop reporting scientifically flawed polls because you have column space to fill, and lazy political reporters, who like Scott Rasmussen, prefer talking about the "horse race" poll numbers (with inaccurate numbers) rather than doing substantive reporting on the candidates and the issues.

Now that Rasmussen has jumped the shark, just stop! Do not report another Rasmussen poll. Please.

As for the corrupt arrogance of the corporate media telling us for whom to vote, tell the corporate media whores to "f&#k off!" by voting for Democrats this fall. Demonstrate, once again, that the corporate media's prognosticators are almost always wrong.