Polls and the News Media - the Nastiest Poll of All - SIX Percent

As we sit back and tune in to another polarizing cable news show about the presidential race, we prepare ourselves for a barrage of insults, half-truths, rumors, innuendo, lies, distortions, agitations, and frustrations, and that is just what is coming from the news reporters and commentators, not the candidates.

They say deaths from opiate over-doses in America have tripled in the past four years.  One wonders if the polarizing hatred seen on cable television 24/7 might be a factor.  What bigger source of pain can there be than politicians, especially ones who will say anything to win and make up all kinds of lies about the others.

Right next to the beer and remote control are the bottles.

In the bottles, you will find the legal pain relief opioid drugs including:

• codeine (only available in generic form)
• fentanyl (Actiq, Duragesic, Fentora)
• hydrocodone (Hysingla ER, Zohydro ER) 
• hydrocodone/acetaminophen (Lorcet, Lortab, Norco, Vicodin)
• hydromorphone (Dilaudid, Exalgo)
• meperidine (Demerol)
• methadone (Dolophine, Methadose)
• morphine (Astramorph, Avinza, Kadian, MS Contin, Ora-Morph SR)
• oxycodone (OxyContin, Oxecta, Roxicodone)
• oxycodone and acetaminophen (Percocet, Endocet, Roxicet)
• oxycodone and naloxone (Targiniq ER)

Now you are ready to face the pain of what you are about to hear.

I am pretty certain lying and political campaigns are synonymous, inter-related, Ying and Yang.  Even fact checkers have to be fact checked to see whose side they are protecting.  Instead of saying "Veritas vos liberabit", "The truth is out there," perhaps one should say "Est ex veritate non est," "No truth is out there."

With that in mind we come to a poll that should be the most dreaded news ever reported by the media.  Of course they do not report it.  What they do report is how Trump has the highest unfavorable rating in modern history.

It is the truth they refuse to report that weighs down on them.  Here is the headline they should be reporting.

   

New Polls force Democrats to push Panic Button as Main Street Media attack Trump

Since we know polls in America show journalists covering the presidential campaign are liberal by a 12-1 margin, it should be no surprise that the liberal media is taking up the attack to stop Trump in the general election.

Trump still has not secured the Republican nomination and Clinton continues to battle Bernie Sanders for media coverage, but the media is acting as if Trump is a real threat to beat the media favorite Clinton.

Quite a contrast to earlier in the campaign when the media dismissed Trump yet wanted him to win the GOP nomination since polls showed Hillary winning by a landslide if Trump were the opponent.

A funny thing happened on the way to the conventions and polls confirmed it after Trump's landslide wins in the Northeast and Indiana primaries blew his last two opponents, Cruz and Kasich, out of it.

Trump and Clinton are now in a near dead heat in nationwide polls and the general election has not even begun.  This week when Trump suddenly started winning the support of major GOP party officials and it looks like the Republicans are going to be united more tremors were felt in the Clinton campaign.

The press says very little about the crosstabs in the polls, and for good reason.  You hear Trump has the highest unfavorable score ever recorded at 65%, yet no one says Hillary has the second highest unfavorable ever recorded at 57%.

So the media has mounted a massive campaign to discredit Trump and drag out anything he ever did in his life, say 30 to 50 years ago, as if it will have a direct effect on whether he pushes the nuclear button.  That is about as yellow as journalism can be.

However, I am not defending Trump.  I say, what he says and does today, is far more relevant than what he did three or four decades ago.  I mean people do change over the course of a lifetime. Besides, every time he opens his mouth he is capable of stumbling over his tongue.

To me fair reporting is an issue of credibility.  Now to get to the most dreaded poll results not reported.

The American Press Institute published a survey April 18, 2016, and the real headline was:

"Only 6% of Americans trust the media"

Just 6 percent of people say they have a lot of confidence in the media, putting the news industry about equal to Congress and well below the public’s view of other institutions. In this presidential campaign year, Democrats were more likely to trust the news media than Republicans or independents.

The bottom line is this.  Why is the media trashing Trump as a strategy to defeat him, pointing to his negative ratings in public polls, when 94% of the same public does not trust the media?

To me the 35% of the public trusting Trump today is six times better than the public trusts the media, 6%.  That is truth in reporting.

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Morning Joe Meltdown - MSNBC Hosts Choke on own Egos

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It has been clear lately that the Morning Joe program is suffering from egotistical constipation as the two hosts, Joe and Mika, fight with each other and then shower each other with incredible foresight and honor for being first on the air to call the 2016 election.  This is when they are not hyping the books they have written, the band Joe plays in, or the books by Mika's family.

Well I have been watching since day one and the only person who stretches the truth more than Donald Trump are the MSNBC egos on air.  Their fortunes are dependent on sucking up to Trump to spike ratings for the show and they have consistently upset the Donald with their gratuitous and unsolicited advice, thus jeopardizing their access to the Donald.

Morning Joe, the token Republican on the show, and token may also be an a exaggeration, has taken to pontificating to Donald the few times Trump has called in, when in fact Joe's only interest is self-promotion. His claim to fame was being a congressman in the late 1990's.

His GOP credentials come from being elected to congress in 1994 and winning four consecutive elections, the last in 2000.  Shortly thereafter he mysteriously resigned from congress in 2001.  This was around the time of rumors of infidelity and his sudden divorce.  Then a married staff member was found dead in his District Office.

Scarborough claims credit for balancing the budget in the late 1990's and of championing New Federalism in congress.  In truth the Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich and President Bill Clinton negotiated the budget balancing although the National Deficit continued to increase at the time.

As for the New Federalism claim, I was part of a Presidential New Federalism task force The New York Times called the most extensive reorganization of the federal government since Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.  We worked in the Nixon White House between 1972 and 1974 and we did pass a massive number of New Federalism initiatives that stand alone to this day as the greatest decentralization of the federal government in history.

Sorry Joe, your claim was an exaggeration as well.

Well after Joe last lectured Donald, Trump has refused to call in to the show thus undermining the ratings for a show long suffering from tepid ratings.  As MSNBC has continued to reorganize the network to be more fair and balanced, the shows have continued their dismal runs in last place in cable news programs and the strain on the Morning Joe hosts is clear.

This week Mika and Joe have gone off the deep end stating over and over how they and they alone called the election, forecast Trump's success,  and are the greatest political pundits on  earth I guess.  The level of insecurity oozing from them was painful to watch.  Everyone knows they are egomaniacs, they tend to constantly overemphasize their importance, knowledge, and status, and that they are firmly in last place in the cable ratings.

Need I say more?
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Polls and the News Media - the Nastiest Poll of All - SIX Percent

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As we sit back and tune in to another polarizing cable news show about the presidential race, we prepare ourselves for a barrage of insults, half-truths, rumors, innuendo, lies, distortions, agitations, and frustrations, and that is just what is coming from the news reporters and commentators, not the candidates.

They say deaths from opiate over-doses in America have tripled in the past four years.  One wonders if the polarizing hatred seen on cable television 24/7 might be a factor.  What bigger source of pain can there be than politicians, especially ones who will say anything to win and make up all kinds of lies about the others.

Right next to the beer and remote control are the bottles.

In the bottles, you will find the legal pain relief opioid drugs including:

• codeine (only available in generic form)
• fentanyl (Actiq, Duragesic, Fentora)
• hydrocodone (Hysingla ER, Zohydro ER) 
• hydrocodone/acetaminophen (Lorcet, Lortab, Norco, Vicodin)
• hydromorphone (Dilaudid, Exalgo)
• meperidine (Demerol)
• methadone (Dolophine, Methadose)
• morphine (Astramorph, Avinza, Kadian, MS Contin, Ora-Morph SR)
• oxycodone (OxyContin, Oxecta, Roxicodone)
• oxycodone and acetaminophen (Percocet, Endocet, Roxicet)
• oxycodone and naloxone (Targiniq ER)

Now you are ready to face the pain of what you are about to hear.

I am pretty certain lying and political campaigns are synonymous, inter-related, Ying and Yang.  Even fact checkers have to be fact checked to see whose side they are protecting.  Instead of saying "Veritas vos liberabit", "The truth is out there," perhaps one should say "Est ex veritate non est," "No truth is out there."

With that in mind we come to a poll that should be the most dreaded news ever reported by the media.  Of course they do not report it.  What they do report is how Trump has the highest unfavorable rating in modern history.

It is the truth they refuse to report that weighs down on them.  Here is the headline they should be reporting.

   

New Polls force Democrats to push Panic Button as Main Street Media attack Trump

Since we know polls in America show journalists covering the presidential campaign are liberal by a 12-1 margin, it should be no surprise that the liberal media is taking up the attack to stop Trump in the general election.

Trump still has not secured the Republican nomination and Clinton continues to battle Bernie Sanders for media coverage, but the media is acting as if Trump is a real threat to beat the media favorite Clinton.

Quite a contrast to earlier in the campaign when the media dismissed Trump yet wanted him to win the GOP nomination since polls showed Hillary winning by a landslide if Trump were the opponent.

A funny thing happened on the way to the conventions and polls confirmed it after Trump's landslide wins in the Northeast and Indiana primaries blew his last two opponents, Cruz and Kasich, out of it.

Trump and Clinton are now in a near dead heat in nationwide polls and the general election has not even begun.  This week when Trump suddenly started winning the support of major GOP party officials and it looks like the Republicans are going to be united more tremors were felt in the Clinton campaign.

The press says very little about the crosstabs in the polls, and for good reason.  You hear Trump has the highest unfavorable score ever recorded at 65%, yet no one says Hillary has the second highest unfavorable ever recorded at 57%.

So the media has mounted a massive campaign to discredit Trump and drag out anything he ever did in his life, say 30 to 50 years ago, as if it will have a direct effect on whether he pushes the nuclear button.  That is about as yellow as journalism can be.

However, I am not defending Trump.  I say, what he says and does today, is far more relevant than what he did three or four decades ago.  I mean people do change over the course of a lifetime. Besides, every time he opens his mouth he is capable of stumbling over his tongue.

To me fair reporting is an issue of credibility.  Now to get to the most dreaded poll results not reported.

The American Press Institute published a survey April 18, 2016, and the real headline was:

"Only 6% of Americans trust the media"

Just 6 percent of people say they have a lot of confidence in the media, putting the news industry about equal to Congress and well below the public’s view of other institutions. In this presidential campaign year, Democrats were more likely to trust the news media than Republicans or independents.

The bottom line is this.  Why is the media trashing Trump as a strategy to defeat him, pointing to his negative ratings in public polls, when 94% of the same public does not trust the media?

To me the 35% of the public trusting Trump today is six times better than the public trusts the media, 6%.  That is truth in reporting.

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American Elections 7 - Tips for International Followers - Why the media and political parties have it all wrong - they forgot about Independents

Sometimes the most obvious is the most difficult to see and when it comes to the American media the most obvious and most logical is most often overlooked.  Ever since Obama first ran for office there has been a peculiar Main Street media fascination with the Tea Party movement and when it comes to the liberal media, it became an obsession.

For some odd reason the Lame Street media has been afraid, fearful, and terrorized by the thought that the Tea Party and its seemingly radical right wing supporters represents a grave threat to the American political process.

If the media wants to condemn a conservative commentator they label them "Tea Party" whether they have any affiliation with the Tea Party or not.  It is the liberal way to stigmatize the on air personalities that cause so much havoc in their lives.

Yet most conservative commentators have never joined the Tea Party and view it as an element of the Republican party, not a separate institution.  So the Democrats have tried to diminish any threat from the Tea Party by talking about the splintering effect the Tea Party has on the Republicans.

I suspect they just don't get it.

The only threat to the two party system in America is their arrogance in thinking there really is just two parties in the country and their failure to see we are rapidly approaching the point of no return when more American are alienated by both political parties and their partisan nonsense when in truth there is little difference between them.

Every election we get closer to the point when there are going to be more Independents than BOTH Democrats and Republicans.  When over 50% of the public believes neither party serves the public but both parties have become their own Special Interests.

With the continuing decline in public confidence in our political parties, politicians and media and with the continued ignorance or deliberate effort by the media to disregard the growing number of Americans rejecting both political parties that day we cross the 50% threshold is rapidly approaching and will most certainly be here by 2016 or 2020.

The following is a Gallup Poll which most media failed to report on the continuing surge in the number of Independents in America.  They are the real danger to the two party system and the real hope for healing our Nation.

January 8, 2014 (first published)

Record-High 42% of Americans Identify as Independents

Republican identification lowest in at least 25 years

by Jeffrey M. Jones

PRINCETON, NJ -- Forty-two percent of Americans, on average, identified as political independents in 2013, the highest Gallup has measured since it began conducting interviews by telephone 25 years ago. Meanwhile, Republican identification fell to 25%, the lowest over that time span. At 31%, Democratic identification is unchanged from the last four years but down from 36% in 2008.

The results are based on more than 18,000 interviews with Americans from 13 separate Gallup multiple-day polls conducted in 2013.

In each of the last three years, at least 40% of Americans have identified as independents. These are also the only years in Gallup's records that the percentage of independents has reached that level.

Americans' increasing shift to independent status has come more at the expense of the Republican Party than the Democratic Party. Republican identification peaked at 34% in 2004, the year George W. Bush won a second term in office. Since then, it has fallen nine percentage points, with most of that decline coming during Bush's troubled second term. When he left office, Republican identification was down to 28%. It has declined or stagnated since then, improving only slightly to 29% in 2010, the year Republicans "shellacked" Democrats in the midterm elections.

Not since 1983, when Gallup was still conducting interviews face to face, has a lower percentage of Americans, 24%, identified as Republicans than is the case now. That year, President Ronald Reagan remained unpopular as the economy struggled to emerge from recession. By the following year, amid an improving economy and re-election for the increasingly popular incumbent president, Republican identification jumped to 30%, a level generally maintained until 2007.

Democratic identification has also declined in recent years, falling five points from its recent high of 36% in 2008, the year President Barack Obama was elected. The current 31% of Americans identifying as Democrats matches the lowest annual average in the last 25 years.

Fourth Quarter Surge in Independence

The percentage of Americans identifying as independents grew over the course of 2013, surging to 46% in the fourth quarter. That coincided with the partial government shutdown in October and the problematic rollout of major provisions of the healthcare law, commonly known as "Obamacare."

The 46% independent identification in the fourth quarter is a full three percentage points higher than Gallup has measured in any quarter during its telephone polling era.

Democrats Maintain Edge in Party Identification

Democrats maintain their six-point edge in party identification when independents' "partisan leanings" are taken into account. In addition to the 31% of Americans who identify as Democrats, another 16% initially say they are independents but when probed say they lean to the Democratic Party. An equivalent percentage, 16%, say they are independent but lean to the Republican Party, on top of the 25% of Americans identifying as Republicans. All told, then, 47% of Americans identify as Democrats or lean to the Democratic Party, and 41% identify as Republicans or lean to the Republican Party.

Democrats have held at least a nominal advantage on this measure of party affiliation in all but three years since Gallup began asking the "partisan lean" follow-up in 1991. During this time, Democrats' advantage has been as high as 12 points, in 2008. However, that lead virtually disappeared by 2010, although Democrats have re-established an edge in the last two years.

Implications

Americans are increasingly declaring independence from the political parties. It is not uncommon for the percentage of independents to rise in a non-election year, as 2013 was. Still, the general trend in recent years, including the 2012 election year, has been toward greater percentages of Americans identifying with neither the Republican Party nor the Democratic Party, although most still admit to leaning toward one of the parties.

The rise in political independence is likely an outgrowth of Americans' record or near-record negative views of the two major U.S. parties, of Congress, and their low level of trust in government more generally.

The increased independence adds a greater level of unpredictability to this year's presidential election. Because U.S. voters are less anchored to the parties than ever before, it's not clear what kind of appeals may be most effective to winning votes. But with Americans increasingly eschewing party labels for themselves, candidates who are less closely aligned to their party or its prevailing doctrine may benefit.

Now that we are halfway through the 2016 election cycle it is clear that the Independent will dominate in the general election, and the "outsider" candidates have demonstrated tremendous strength in the primary elections.  Both political parties are actively trying to stop the outsiders and protect the political establishment and status quo, but Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump may be more resilient than expected by the media.  

Survey Methods

Results are based on aggregated telephone interviews from 13 separate Gallup polls conducted in 2013, with a random sample of 18,871 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±1 percentage point at the 95% confidence level.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones and cellular phones, with interviews conducted in Spanish for respondents who are primarily Spanish-speaking. Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 50% cellphone respondents and 50% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by region. Landline and cell telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods. Landline respondents are chosen at random within each household on the basis of which member had the most recent birthday.

Samples are weighted to correct for unequal selection probability, nonresponse, and double coverage of landline and cell users in the two sampling frames. They are also weighted to match the national demographics of gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education, region, population density, and phone status (cellphone only/landline only/both, and cellphone mostly). Demographic weighting targets are based on the March 2012 Current Population Survey figures for the aged 18 and older U.S. population. Phone status targets are based on the July-December 2011 National Health Interview Survey. Population density targets are based on the 2010 census. All reported margins of sampling error include the computed design effects for weighting.

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

For more details on Gallup's polling methodology, visit www.gallup.com.

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Fox News Dominates Cable Ratings - Again

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News Ratings

Entertainment

Fox News Channel Tops Basic Cable Quarter For First Time Ever

Lisa de Moraes,

Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdock

For the first time in its nearly 20-year history, Fox News Channel clocked the biggest quarterly crowd in basic cable, in primetime and in total day. In total day, FNC delivered its highest rated quarter ever in total viewers.

In outranking all other cable networks for the full quarter, FNC spent the past 10 consecutive weeks as the No. 1 cable channel in total day viewers.

The news channel, which has spent the past 14 years outstripping its cable news competition, this time bested all cable comers. In primetime, the network logged 2.37M viewers (up 26%), and 483K of them falling into the key news demo of viewers 25-54 years (up 50%). FNC’s total viewer take routed CNN’s 1.4M and MSNBC’s 888K. CNN jumped a whopping 165% compared to same quarter last year, while MSNBC grew 66%.  Among 25-54 year olds, FNC edged out CNN’s 455K and bested MSNBC’s 226K. Here too, CNN soared, by 143%, to MSNBC”s 71% spike.

In total day, the network averaged 1.35M viewers (up 14%)  and 271K news demo viewers (up 23%). In overall audience, FNC’s total day tally  bests CNN’s 732K and MSNBC’s 502K combined. CNN is up 57% compared to first quarter of ’15 and MSNBC is up 59%. In the news demo, FNC’s 271K edged out CNN’s 217K and MSNBC’s 131K. MSNBC is up 54%, compared to CNN’s 48% gain and FNC’s 30%.

To get there, FNC notched the Top 14 cable news programs in total viewers and nine of the top 10 programs in the news demo.  The O’Reilly Factor at 8PM ET continued as the most watched program in cable news and garnered its highest-rated quarter in both total viewers (3.4M) and news demo (598K) since 2012. The Kelly File at 9PM ET delivered its most-watched quarter since its launch in October 2013 (2.5M). They were closely followed by Special Report w/ Bret Baier (2.4M), The Five (2.3M), and On the Record w/ Greta Van Susteren (2.1M). But FNC’s Hannity was up the most among FNC primetime programs for the quarter  in total viewers (1,882,000, up 35%) and the demo (434,000, up 39%), delivering its highest-rated quarter since the net re-configured its primetime in ’13.

Also in the quarter, FNC  logged top-rated primary debate of 2016, on March 3rd, averaging 17 million viewers. The network delivered the highest-rated primary night in cable news history on March 15th, with over 5M in total viewers for coverage of the Michigan and Ohio primary results, topping both MSNBC and CNN.

CNN, meanwhile, bagged its most-watched quarter in total day in seven years, and best primetime since 4Q 2008 in total viewers and the news demo. On the weekends, CNN ranked No. 1 in the first quarter across cable news among those viewers 25-54 in both total day and primetime. Of particular note, CNN narrowed the gap with Fox News to the closest it’s been in at least seven years in both total viewers and the news demo, in total day and in primetime. Fueling CNN’s quarterly ratings hikes were its 12 debates and town halls in the first quarter. MSNBC boosted its numbers with one debate and five town halls; FNC telecast two debates and one town hall.

MSNBC, meanwhile focused its 1Q ratings talk on its dayside gains for the quarter. In the daypart, the NBCU cable news net scored its best quarter in three years, in total viewers and the news demo. The network credits its shift to a renewed focus on breaking news in the Monday through Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM daypart. And, Morning Joe clocked its best quarter ever for MSNBC in the 6-9 AM timeslot.

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