Thursday, April 23, 2009

Feeling Dizzy? It's the All the Spinning...

Remember the old days, when the media used to track a president's approval rating like the weather? Well...by "old days," I mean, "Bush's presidency"...

America couldn't turn on the evening news or read a newspaper without hearing about President Bush's falling approval rating. (No matter what your political leaning is, you're nodding along with me. I mean, c'mon. Bush's approval rating was given more air time than Octomom and Britney Spears combined.)

Which begs the question...why isn't the media covering President Obama's approval polls with the same fervor? (That's got you thinking, hasn't it?) Hmmm... let's come back to that.

The media is crafty - it knows the power of suggestion. Talk about how crummy a restaurant is enough times, and you can bet no one's going to want to eat there. Spend every night reporting how a president's popularity is falling, and you can bet that trend will continue. It's not rocket science. Even high schoolers know the power of popularity. If the word on the street is that K-Fed is a joke, then it's a no-brainer. Literally. Why even bother to think about it? Just go with the flow. Follow the crowd. The media counts on Americans to act like high schoolers. What brand of jeans are cool? What kind of car should I drive? Should I like my president?

Which explains why President Obama's approval rating is noticeably absent from the news. The media doesn't want to start a domino effect by actually publicizing Obama's plunging popularity. They know that will only add to his falling approval rating - just as it did with President Bush. As I said, the media is crafty. But we're onto you, Media...

So, let's look at an article in the news today (Or, as I like to call it, "seeing past the spin"). The AP announced with a frenetic giddiness reserved for the insane: "Americans High on Obama, Direction of U.S." Intelligent Americans, however, will notice immediately upon actually reading the article that the subsequent AP poll results are far from "high." The article reports that 48% of Americans say the country is on the right track, while 44% say it is not (since when is less than half considered "high"?), and more importantly, the article brushes by its own report that 80% of Americans are fed up with federal spending. If you find yourself gasping at the dishonesty of the media, like a child learning there is no Santa Claus, we'll ease you into this a bit more gently: Um, maybe the AP made a typo. Maybe it was supposed to read, "Americans Sigh at Obama, Direction of U.S."? I'm sure they didn't purposefully use a misleading title that misrepresents their news. Surely the media doesn't think it's actually smarter than its readers, right? Right? (You're still recovering from the Santa comment, aren't you?)

It should be noted that the reputable Rasmussen Reports polls show that 57% of Americans feel the country is heading in the wrong direction, while 37% feel America is on the right track. Incidentally (and not reported by the media), Rasmussen Reports show that 58% of Americans believe the release of CIA memos endangers national security, 60% believe that the government has too much power, and only 37% strongly approve of President Obama. Hmmm. Why doesn't the media talk about those polls?

And while we're noting polls the media doesn't like to discuss, how about the Gallup polls that showed Obama behind Bush, after each man's first month as President? Obama's 59% approval rating serves to point out the growing gap between the American people and the media mind-control attempts... But America is onto you, Media.

Media, I'm afraid there's a 100% chance you're getting a TIME OUT. It's not fair that you're not reporting Obama's dropping approval rating with at least as much hysteria as your coverage of President Bush's. But more importantly, your concerted cover-up attempts confirm your knowledge of how damaging negative polls can be...and that you use them when you see fit. And that's an abuse of power.

1 comment:

  1. Duh, the news makes news, it does not report it.
    Obama is a rock star right now, and no one wants to hear how bad news about the already bad state the US is in. The media knows this, therefore, we don't hear about approval ratings for Obama, at least not from Brian Williams.
    Peace...I'm out! tkellett

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