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The Democratic Strategist

Political Strategy for a Permanent Democratic Majority

Mainstream Media Shuns Impeachment Poll Results

by EDM Staff
If a major opinion poll showed a majority of Americans favored impeaching President Bush if he lied about his reasons for going to war in Iraq, natch it would get broad press coverage, right?
Wrong, according to Jamison Foser’s expose of mainstream media’s pro-Republican bias over at Media Matters. His article, “Media Continues to Ignore Impeachment Polling” argues that Bush pretty much got a free ride from ostensibly non-partisan major media, which ignored the Zogby Poll result noted above. In the Zogby poll, 53 percent of respondents agreed that Bush should be impeached if he lied about his reasons for leading America to war in Iraq. Foser does cite a short ‘honor roll’ of media that did report the story:

Only five news reports available on Nexis mention the latest Zogby poll: the Froomkin [WaPo] column, an Investor’s Business Daily editorial, a column in the University of Massachusetts student newspaper, a “Potpourri” feature in West Virginia’s Charleston Gazette, and a column in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Froomkin’s November 7th WaPo column also cited an Ipsos-Public Affairs Poll showing 50 percent of respondents in agreement with the need to impeach. Foser reports that other WaPo writers lamely defended the paper’s decision not to do a poll on the impeachment question, even though the Post and other papers nearly drowned their readers in ink about former President Clinton’s impeachment prospects.
There’s more, and Foser makes a slam dunk case that Bush benefits significantly from lapdog media in this story and others at Media Matters.