Tuesday, February 28, 2006

CBS poll oversamples Democrats...again

I had just mentioned in the prior post how no one takes CBS seriously anymore. Stunts like this further illustrate why. From Newsbusters:
In its classic "fair and balanced" tradition, CBS slanted in favor of Democrats its poll that found Bush has a 34 percent approval rating and a 59 percent disapproval rating, an all-time high for a CBS poll.

On the bottom of the PDF version of the poll (page 18) it says how many Democrats versus Republicans were contacted.

"Total Republicans" contacted: 272 unweighted and 289 weighted.

"Total Democrats" contacted: 409 unweighted and 381 weighted.

"Total Independents" contacted: 337 unweighted and 348 weighted.

Brent Baker also noted how CBS failed to highlight a key portion of its poll on the Feb. 27 "CBS Evening News." 66 percent of respondents thought the media devoted "too much time" to Cheney's hunting accident.
I did go to FSU, where we're more known for our football than our math, but if my Basketweaving 101 course served me properly, that represents a sample of 40% Democrats, 27% Republicans, and 33% independents. This represents an "objective" and "accurate" poll to CBS? It's about as accurate as Rather's and Mapes' memos, I suppose.

Nope...no liberal media bias!