Tabloid Journalism

Commentary By Ron Beasley

Over at Memeorandum this morning the top headline is Confidence in Obama reaches new low, Washington Post-ABC News poll finds.  But does it really show that?  Over at The Moderate Voice Pete Abel says not really.

So here�s the crux of the WaPo
headline generated by editors looking at the results of a
joint poll commissioned by their employer and ABC News: �Confidence in
Obama reaches new low.�

Contributing writers at Chris
Cillizza�s WaPo blog describe it as �an erosion of
confidence� in the President.

While I�m no Nate
Silver, I�m pretty sure these same editors and writers
could have studied the details of the polling results and reached a
different conclusion, namely: �Despite economy, oil spill, confidence in
Obama effectively same as six months ago.�

The main stream media in the US has become little but tabloid journalism looking for an attention getting headline.  Obama is dealing with the worst economy in decades, unpopular wars and a catastrophic oil spill in the gulf.  So how does he compare with St. Ronnie of Reagan?

Reagan came into office on a fairly high note, with initial job
approval ratings as high as 60% by mid-March 1981. Then, on March
30, Reagan was shot on the streets of Washington by John Hinckley
Jr., and the resulting concern and sympathy helped lift his ratings
to 68% by May. But even as Reagan personally recovered from his
wounds, the public's concerns about the bad economy did not, and
the president's ratings began to fall as each month went by.

By the end of 1981, Reagan's job approval rating had drifted
down to 49%.

Things got worse for Reagan in 1982. The public's view of the
economy remained sour, and the president's ratings during 1982
stayed concomitantly low, in the 40% range, ending the year at 41%.
The 1982 midterm elections were not good ones for Reagan and for
the GOP. The Republicans lost about 25 seats in the House.

So with even more bad news Obama is out polling Reagan and as Pete observes there has been virtually no change in his approval rating all year.

It has amazed me that Obama's approval rating has remained as high as it has not how low it has gone.