Kerry's Out By A Mile In THIS Poll

Annie

Diamond Member
Nov 22, 2003
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Why doesn't this surprise me? What's with the NYT in the past 2 weeks? First the editor writes a piece telling us the obvious, that the NYT has a leftist bent, now this?

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/01/p...and&adxnnlx=1091445212-aH+abyIIweKy45WJVgaq/Q

Excerpt:

August 1, 2004
POLITICAL POINTS
Finding Biases on the Bus
By JOHN TIERNEY

S John Kerry celebrates his nomination with a coast-to-coast bus trip (this may be the first time the word "celebrates" has appeared so close to "coast-to-coast bus trip") conservatives are complaining about his good press. They say that journalists' liberal bias has colored the reviews of the Democratic convention and his speech.

But do journalists really want John Kerry to defeat George W. Bush? It depends where they work and how you ask the question, at least according to the unscientific survey we conducted last weekend during a press party at the convention. We got anonymous answers from 153 journalists, about a third of them based in Washington.

When asked who would be a better president, the journalists from outside the Beltway picked Mr. Kerry 3 to 1, and the ones from Washington favored him 12 to 1. Those results jibe with previous surveys over the past two decades showing that journalists tend to be Democrats, especially the ones based in Washington. Some surveys have found that more than 80 percent of the Beltway press corps votes Democratic.

But political ideology isn't the only possible bias. Journalists also have a professional bias: they need good stories to make the front page and get on the air.

So we asked our respondents which administration they'd prefer to cover the next four years strictly from a journalistic standpoint. We expected the Washington journalists to strongly prefer Mr. Kerry, partly because they complain so much about the difficulty of getting leaks from the Bush White House, but mainly because any change in administration means lots of news.

Sure enough, the Washington respondents said they would rather cover Mr. Kerry, but by a fairly small amount, 27 to 21, and the other journalists picked Bush, 56 to 40. (A few others had no opinion.) The overall result was 77 for Bush, 67 for Mr. Kerry.

Why stick with the Bush administration? "You can't ask for a richer cast of characters to cover," one Washington correspondent said. "Kerry will be a bore after these guys."

Since presidential relatives are such a rich source of embarrassing stories, we asked the journalists to predict which ones would make the most interesting news. The clear favorites were the Bush twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara, probably because of their proven track record (brushes with the authorities over under-age drinking). They got 74 votes. Teresa Heinz Kerry was next, with 39.

Liberals complained in 2000 that Mr. Bush got off easy because he was better than Al Gore at charming reporters. So we tried to test for a likeability bias. With which presidential nominee, we asked, would you rather be stranded on a desert island? Mr. Kerry was the choice of both groups: 31 to 17 among the Washington journalists, and 51 to 39 among the others.

"Bush's religious streak,'' one Florida correspondent said, "would drive me nuts on a desert island."

Too Rich For My Tax Cut

TAKE my tax cut please!

In his speech at the convention, Bill Clinton delighted the crowd by complaining about the unnecessary tax cut he had received. At a breakfast with Florida delegates, the actor Ben Affleck got into specifics, explaining that the Bush tax cuts had provided him with $1 million last year that he didn't need.

It was a smart strategy to please the faithful in Boston, but the protests may raise a question for some voters: If you think the government has a better use for the money, why not give it back? When The Nation urged readers to send their tax rebates to the magazine, the editors were criticized for hypocrisy: given their beliefs, shouldn't they want those rebates to pay for public programs instead of remaining in the private sector?

We asked Mr. Affleck if he had considered sending the $1 million back to Washington. "No," he said. "I'm not Jesus Christ of the tax code. I can't completely martyr myself."
 

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