Karl Rove is not in the president's camp when it comes to politics, and he's not in the USA Today camp either after the news publication failed to provide context for its recent Obama-Romney voter attitude survey.
And for those wondering why that matters, Rove's position can be explained this way: Incomplete information from a news source is as bad as false information. And either is taboo from any news source in America, since many readers assume what they say is true and accurate.
On Tuesday, Rove said that the respected news agency is playing it fast and loose with providing readers with all the facts about the polling done, and that it withheld key data in its recent "good news for Obama" poll piece. And he thinks that's just plain bad journalism.
In fact, he also says that the news company did the same thing in May. And he's calling them out on it in an editorial piece on Fox News.
Rove was referring to the poll that has the president leading Mitt Romney by two points, allegedly, in 12 battleground states, which was conducted by USA and then released on Monday.
According to the Republican, USA Today failed to mention that while the commander-in-chief may be ahead by two percentage points in that poll this week, he's actually doing much worse in those states than he did back in 2008.
And the reader should have been told as much, so they could better understand the country's discontent with the current administration.
Instead, however, the news publication is trumpeting the poll as "good news" for the White House elected official, and playing it up as if he is ahead by a landslide and a shoo-in for November, which Rove says is a big mislead.
No matter how you slice the information, however, you still must concede that the president is ahead of Romney in the poll this week, even if it is by much less than when he ran against John McCain.
The former George Bush administration official is correct, though; the former Chicago resident had a seven point poll lead (54 to 45 percent) against John McCain in 2008 when these states were polled, and he has a much smaller two percent lead over Romney (47 to 45) now.
So, yes, Karl Rove, the voters are less satisfied with Obama now than they thought they would be before he was elected.
So the real question is: Why did USA Today only slant the "good news" poll piece to insinuate that the Democrat is beating the heck out of his Republican opponent Mitt Romney rather than give the reader all the facts--like the fact that the president is losing more in 2012 with voters than he did in 2008?
Karl Rover would say that it is because they want the president to keep his position in office, of course. But it could be nothing more than the poll piece writer not doing his homework or not wanting the piece to be about the past, choosing to talk only about today.
However, talking about today's successes or failures of the current White House administration could be a big mistake for those who want to see the incumbent president re-elected, as his dismal job loss record and high unemployment rates scream failure more than success.
And USA Today probably didn't think about that when they put out their poll piece.
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Comments: 24
Some of my favorite highlights from his career:
Stealing letterhead from dumpster of opponent of candidate he was managing copying it and distributing to homeless inviting them to a fundraiser for his opposition candidate where the press would be covering it.
Calling the FBI, when his candidate was down in the polls, about to lose the election, and telling them and the press that he'd found a bug in his candidate's office that "must" have been planted by the opposition. This turned the election around from public reaction, but the FBI tested the bug and found that it had only had 15 minutes of life gone from the battery; leading to the obvious conclusion that .... um... who do you think planted that bug.
Created the image of Bush as an all-American guy with his stage prop ranch.
Defied a subpoena from the Judiciary Committee.
Rove should know all about that.
Because Obama is ahead in the swing states despite a highly enthused, PAC-funded opposition and a lackluster record. Karl Rove is a bloated gas bag. It's not false or misleading journalism, it may not give all of the context, but that's why it's USA Today. Being ahead is literally good news for Obama because no president has ever been reelected with unemployment this high.
Way to go.
The University of Maryland polled viewers of various networks about seven mistaken conclusions widely held by the public in spite of the absence of any evidence. For all seven questions, viewers of FOX News ranked highest in belief in wrong conclusions. 67% believed a clear link had been established between Saddam and al-Qaeda, in spite of absolutely no evidence to support such a conclusion, and after the invasion, 33% of Fox Viewers got it wrong that WMD were actually found in Iraq. While Fox News viewers had the highest statistics of wrong conclusions for all seven questions, viewers of public media (PBS, NPR) had the lowest numbers of wrong conclusions for all seven questions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_News_Channel_controversies
Scroll down about 1/4 page to find the relating text.
But judging from all of the adversity and all of the invective, thrown President Obama's way, during his first term, the poll numbers are, LITERALLY, good news--when one judges the statistics from this context.
Mr. Rove seeks spin at all costs.
Is this an identity crisis?