The story is always a story

“There was even racial dissension over Mr. Obama’s wife, Michelle: She was viewed favorably by 58 percent of black voters, compared with 24 percent of white voters.”

From a front page story analyzing poll results in The New York Times.

What the article doesn’t say is that only 20% of the whites surveyed viewed Mrs. McCain favorably.

One thought on “The story is always a story”

  1. I too was really struck by the NYT’s characterization of its own poll. I read the full poll first and then the story when they posted it last night. I’ve rarely seen a story so wildly off from the actual data on which it is based.

    Aside from point C in the Obama response (which is true and basically negates the story), the premise of the story is, well, utter nonsense.

    Time polling expert Jackson Dykman. He also had this (and more!).

    Why on earth would the story say “there’s even racial dissension over Mr. Obama’s wife, Michelle: She was viewed favorably by 58% of black voters, compared with 24% of white voters.” The numbers for Cindy McCain: 20% favorable among white voters, 9% favorable among black voters (!!!)

    I’ve long made the argument that journalists care wildly more about candidates’ spouses than readers do, but someone needs to tell me why the racial dissension is “over Michelle Obama.”

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