Sunday Tribbing

It's called "projection" my friends and the Richard Mellon Scaife's braintrust does it well.

From today's Sunday Pops:

The Democratic National Committee's man at ABC News, George Snuffleupagus, er, Stephanopoulos, told viewers of "World News" on Tuesday that "we've got a new poll out tonight that shows the tea party may be losing steam nationwide." But as the Media Research Center's Brent Baker pointed out, Wonder Boy and ABC couldn't find time in the same newscast to report how the very same poll showed a plurality of Americans disapprove how President Barack Obama was handling BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Root, root, root for the home team, eh George?

Let's deconstruct what they're trying to say. Baseball and Sesame Street references aside, they're saying that because George Stephanopoulos is "The Democratic National Committee's man at ABC" he spins what should be unbiased news in favor of his "home team" (aka the DNC).

But look at whose "research" they're using: Brent Bozell's Media Research Center. Here's the piece from Brent Baker, the MRC's Vice President for Research and Publications:

Stephanopoulos and ABC, however, didn’t find time, in multiple stories on the oil leak, to inform viewers how the same ABC News/Washington Post survey, released Tuesday morning, found that by 49 to 44 percent the public disapproves of President Obama's handling of the disaster. In addition, “the number of Americans who think the President ‘understands the problems of people like you,’ at 51 percent, is down from 56 percent in a Washington Post poll in late March; and at 57 percent his rating as a strong leader is down from 65 percent in March.” [emphasis in original]

Do we need to point out who pays for the pencils at the MRC? I guess we do. From November, 2009:

Yes, the same Media Research Center that received $200,000 in 2006, $325,000 in 2007, and $325,000 in 2008 from the Sarah Scaife Foundation - a foundation run by Richard Mellon Scaife who owns the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the paper that ran that editorial.

Media Matters puts it at about $2.8 million over the years.

So Richard Mellon Scaife's braintrust told us that Scaife's man at MRC, Brent Baker, told viewers of "BiasAlert" that George Stephanopoulos selectively sited a Washington Post/ABC poll. But I'll point out that Baker Boy, the MRC and The Trib couldn't find time in the same piece to report that, according to the same poll they're using:

• While only 26% of those polled approved of the way Congress was doing its job (Question 5), a plurality (49%) approved of the way their own representative in the House was doing his/her job (Question 6) AND that more people trust the Democratic Party over the Republican party (44% to 32%) "to do a better job coping with main problems our nation faces over the next few years" (Question 7).
• A plurality of those polled (45% to 40%) believe the Democratic Party has "better ideas about the right size and role of the federal government " (Question 8).

Funny how Richard Mellon Scaife's Media Research Center and his Tribune-Review filtered those parts out, huh?

The circle jerk continues.