To me, this is the type of story that we need to be talking about- time to take these people to task and/or get to the bottom of it.
Of course, props to Media Matters for breaking it.
Here's the link
In disclosing the results of their poll, conducted July 10-13, ABC News and The Washington Post issued staggered releases, withholding from their first release on July 14 poll results favorable to Sen. Barack Obama, including the finding that 50 percent of registered voters would vote for Obama "[i]f the 2008 presidential election were being held today" versus 42 percent who favored Sen. John McCain.
Naturally, there are a multitude of possible reactions. My first was anger, but that subsided and made me try to think of the thought process that would lead to this decision being made.
What makes it a little different is that other questions were withheld as well- the article mentions that only 10 of the foriegn policy Q's were produced in the first set.
The second set was very favorable to one Senator Obama. MediaMatters described that release as follows:
On July 15, the day after the initial release, ABC News and the Post issued a second release disclosing the results of 18 questions "embargoed for release after 5 p.m. Tuesday, July 15, 2008." Included in the release was the result that overall, Obama leads McCain by 8 percentage points among registered voters. Additionally, the release stated: "Obama continues to hold most of the advantages in the presidential race, in enthusiasm, levels of partisanship, personal qualities and trust on top domestic issues, notably No. 1, the economy; and he's improved in the past month among swing voter groups." The release noted that Obama leads McCain by 19 percentage points on the question of which candidate respondents "trust more to handle the economy."
There could be a nice little reason for this, but the other lingering question for me is whether releasing the positive stuff for Obama later was actually better for him. However, that theory is hurt somewhat by the nature of the media cycle and I seem to believe that Monday was a rough day for McSame.
Any thoughts are more than welcome