WATCH: CNN Bends Over Backwards To Cushion The Blow From Devastating Record Low Biden Approval Rating
On CNN’s Newsroom on Thursday, the network took great pains to cushion the blow of President Joe Biden‘s latest record low polling numbers.
Above a chyron that said Biden’s approval rating “dips” to “all-time low,” anchor Ana Cabrera segued to the stunning new Quinnipiac poll numbers from a story about the debt ceiling fight by way of an impressively belabored throat-clearing.
“A debt crisis appears to be averted for now,” Cabrera began, launching into a laundry list of factors affecting Biden’s approval.
“But as we just mentioned the president’s economic agenda still hasn’t passed, there’s ongoing fallout over Afghanistan and the Mexico border crisis and, of course, we’re still in the pandemic, and all of that has sent president Biden’s approval rating to an all-time low,” said Cabrera.
“Just 38% of Americans approve of his job performance, according to this new Quinnipiac University poll. That is down from 42% just three weeks ago,” she continued.
Cabrera then questioned the premise of her own segment by saying that other polls show a rosier result.
“Other recent surveys aren’t quite so bleak, however, for the White House,” said Cabrera. “A CNN average of recent polls puts Biden’s approval rating at 45%.”
Reaching even further, Cabrera cited Pew Research Center polls to argue that Biden’s agenda is still really hot right now, so not to worry.
Watch:
Adding context for poll numbers is a standard practice, but doing so can be selective. In the segment, Cabrera did add the context of other polling, but not that the laundry list of preemptive “buts” to her segment — the various items affecting Biden’s approval – are things owned by the president, not simply things that happened to him.
The Afghanistan withdrawal, the border crisis, these are the president’s responsibility and a test of his policies. They aren’t simply unfortunate circumstances. Lumping them with the debt limit debate that CNN spent the day blaming on Republicans certainly gives the impression that they are neutral negatives or even beyond his control.
Cabrera likewise noted that we are “still in” a pandemic, rather than noting that Quinnipiac specifically polled on Biden’s handling of the pandemic, with 50% of respondents giving him a bad grade.
Additionally, the polling average cited by Cabrera as a caveat or counter represents an average of polls. As both FiveThirtyEight and RealClearPolitics averages show, the rate of decline shown in Quinnipiac’s result is mirrored in the averages. So while the CNN average may be a higher number, the decline is essentially the same.
Not every poll result is news, and polls are almost never cited in a vacuum. But this poll was big news, and when context crosses into virtual gainsaying or at least caveating, it’s no longer a matter of simply adding context. It’s trying hard to cushion bad news for a preferred political point of view.
