The way the NYT released results for 7 state polls is a perfect example of pro-Warren media bias [View all]

[highplainsdem]

Last edited Fri Nov 8, 2019, 10:58 AM - Edit history (1)

Siena/NYT polled in 7 battleground states late last month, both for the Democratic primary and for the GE, and the findings for all 7 states overwhelmingly favored Joe Biden.

But the NYT chose to release the Iowa primary poll results first, and that got overwhelming media coverage, because it showed Warren in first place, followed by Sanders, Buttigieg, and Biden clear back in 4th.

OMG. Cue all the Biden haters in the media and online! His campaign was doooooooomed!!!

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287330698

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/01/us/politics/iowa-poll-warren-biden.html

They did release results of the GE matchups a few days later and those were much more favorable for Biden, with him doing better than Warren against Trump.


But then they waited until today to release the primary results for the other 6 states.

Which showed Warren narrowly ahead in only 1 state -- Wisconsin, where she leads Biden by 2 points -- while Biden was ahead in the other 5 states by much wider margins:


https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287339562

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/08/us/politics/democrats-poll-moderates-battleground.html


The headline for the story about those 6 polls was, understandably, Democrats in Battleground States Prefer Moderate Nominee, Poll Shows.

That would also have been an accurate headline if they'd released all 7 state polls at the same time.

But that wouldn't have given the NYT their "OMG look at Warren surging and Biden failing!" narrative last week that the media seem so fond of.


Maybe -- MAYBE -- the media will give this poll showing Biden's advantage in the other states equal attention.

But I'm skeptical that they will, because it doesn't fit their pro-Warren narrative.


_________


Editing to link to a thread a month ago about Nate Silver tweeting that polls showing Biden doing well get less media attention:

Nate Silver: Count on media ignoring Fox News WI/SC polls since they don't match media narrative
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287301251


And another thread about this, also from last month:

538 staff discussion of media coverage being biased for Warren, esp coverage of polls
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1287306100