I rarely post here, but I had to vent when I came a cross this douzy by CNN:
CNN Dishonesty
Needless to say, I couldn't leave that alone, so I felt the need to respond to their intellectually dishonest article with the following statement:
This is one of the most intellectually dishonest and deceiving articles I've read in a long time and goes a long way towards explaining why CNN is on the fast track to the gutter. No legitimate poll-based reporting would consider a 5 point gap as a statistical tie with a 3.1 point MOE. Sure, if you add three to one side and subtract it from the other, it would be a virtual tie, but that's not how MOE works for the most part. What CNN is essentially stating in this article is that anything short of a 7 point lead is a tie!! That's incredible! And in fact, in this article, Obama's 7 point lead in Ohio is treated as a close race. Yet, in CNN"s reporting of its own national poll, which has Obama up by 6 and an MOE of 3.5 (an MOE even larger than the NBC/Marist state polls), CNN clearly highlights that Obama has a lead. Why?!? Why is there such a vast discrepancy between how CNN reports its own findings nationally and how it writes about three crucial battleground state polls that all show Obama leading significantly? Is CNN so interested in presenting a close race for ratings purposes that it resorts to misleading and intellectually dishonest headlines and articles? Or is it that CNN lacks the courage to withstand the far-right criticisms of bias and thus goes out of its way to create stupid spins on data that are obviously good news for President Obama? Either way, this article is an anathema to real journalism and is an indictment on what CNN has become.
I encourage everyone to comment on the article as well and let them know how ridiculous it is.