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Feb. 28, 2006 Well, after a long hiatus from the writing world, I was shaken out of my slumber by the latest example of the clear media bias which continues to exist despite the increasing prevalence of alternative media outlets. CBS News has issued the results of a poll which show an approval rating for President Bush at approximatley 34%. Dick Cheney was ranked even lower than this in the 18% range. On the surface, any reasonable person would immediately question both of these numbers almost immediately. Anybody who remotely follows the political world, and is the slightest bit objective, would feel something is wrong here. Well, as usual, the bulk of the mainstream media not only did not question the results, they took off running with them as if the poll itself is indisbutable proof of our presidents current popularity standing. No less than Larry King, Diane Sawyer and the assorted network talking heads immediately report these "surprise" findings revealed by CBS. One would think that the natural curiosity which is supposed to be inherent in all professional journalists would be piqued with this public opinion poll. Given the relatively recent history of CBS News and its zeal to nail the current Administration to the proverbial wall (I'm sure Dan Rather's forged documents might ring a bell with some of these people), I would expect more inquiries as to the veracity of anything coming from this news department, especially that which further paints President Bush and his staff in a negative light. Yet, the media, like excited blind sheep take this message and spread it to the masses with glee in their eyes. Professional skepticism is but a myth when the topic relates to the declining popularity of a Republican president, particularly one who has the audacity to not give the media one bit more of respect than the media gives to him. (After all, this is the same administration which failed to properly report Vice President Cheney's hunting accident to the Beltway Bulldogs as he is required to do--at least in the opinion of the Beltway Bulldogs. Who doubts that we'd still be reading about Cheney's incident in the press if it wasn't for the UAE port deal, a story that was ignored by most of the press until they had wrung what they could from the Cheney hunting story?) Of course, the truth of the CBS poll was soon revealed in that it reflected a participation rate of 40% Democrats, 28% Republicans with the balance being so-called Independents. History shows that most people claiming to be "Independents" are really more liberal than conservative. I guess this is because most conservatives more confidently know who they are while many liberals are reluctant to admit it. So, effectively, this poll consisted of somewhere between 65% and 70% Democrats (allowing for the possibility of some Independents actually being more Republican) with less than 30% Republican respondents in a nation that is far more closely divided 50/50 between the groups. Even if we give Democrats a few perecentage point edge in the makeup of the national population, to a 52/48 split, the CBS sample is still clearly skewed towards Democrats. Any result fromt this poll would have to be highly questioned--it's Statistics 101--basic logic really. Basic logic, though, is rarely applied by mainstream media when there is the chance to discredit and futher smear conservatives, particularly our current president. And this does not even touch on the subject of the survey questions themselves, many of which were worded to elicit a specified response, one which was not exactly sympathetic to President Bush's cause. It is bad enough that CBS News, like other left wing oriented outlets, continues to spew its preconceived notions disguised as objective news; however, it is even more disconcerting when the whole of the mainstream media jumps on the story and perpetuates the fallacy. I know of nobody in the mainstream news organizations who even questioned how this survey was crafted and how the respondents broke down politically---other than those typical right wing pundits such as Rush Limbaugh. And some people, even in the UK forum, have questioned how Limbaugh could have built such an audience if there truly was a liberal media bias. These neophytes don't realize that Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and others have built their large followings BECAUSE of the liberal media. There was an unmet pent up demand for decades and these people, led by Limbaugh capitalized on it. The problem is they are not "news" people and, as such, they do not operate under the guise of objectivity, like CBS News. In the end, of course, I'm happy we have a president who does not operate by public opinion polls one way or another. We don't send leaders to Washington to make decisions on the basis of what a mostly uninformed distracted electorate believes is appropriate. It's the whole reason we have a representative democracy as opposed to a pure democracy. Let the Democrats continue to take their polls and shape (and reshape) their policy (or lack thereof) based upon how the wind blows. In the end, they will become the victims of their friends in the fraudulent mainstream press. ------------ About the author: Ed Abraham is a concerned citizen living in flyover country, U.S.A., who happens to be truly disgusted by the loss of common sense in our society and is doing all he can to try to reinstall it. Email: eabra@myway.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. 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