Liberal-friendly Spin - MSM does it again

I had to laugh at a Yahoo headline and report from Canadian Press this week.

The Liberal-friendly press lovingly spins their pro-Dion headline thusly:

"Voters see Dion as blank canvas with very good potential as PM: poll"

Does the "story" warrant this headline? Let's see.

It is hard to evaluate the poll precisely since the story admits that "The Decima Research poll, (was) made available exclusively to The Canadian Press". I searched and couldn't find the poll or the questions asked. But one can read between the lines to find the questions asked (in quotations).

In response to the first (apparent) question,

"(Do you think that Stephane Dion has) the potential to be an excellent prime minister of Canada one day?"

... 43% reportedly answered yes.

Is this news or merely spin? I think I might have the "potential" to be an excellent Prime Minister "some day", given my experience, my knowledge of the political system in Canada, enough time to learn better French than his English, a great team and a whole string of good luck.

Given that a) many/most Canadians outside of Quebec and outside of the Liberal Party likely haven't got a clue who he is or what he stands for, or right before Christmas, do they really care, b) there is a margin of error of 3.1% in the poll, 19 times out of 20 c) roughly 32% of Canadians have already said they would vote Liberal if an election were held today anyway (poll done Nov. 5-9, when Liberals were leaderless) d) 30% voted Liberal in the last election even with the Chretien/Martin corruption/Mr. Dithers legacy ... just how significant is this "43%" yes response?

In other words, within the margin of error, the vast majority of these chronic "spotted-dog" Liberal voters would likely answer "yes" to this question even if, for instance, a Joe Volpe or Hedy Fry had somehow won the Liberal leadership contest. So how is this headline news? Only if you have an ongoing pro-Liberal/anti-Harper agenda methinks.

How about this earth-shattering factoid:

"And almost one-third - including roughly one-third of NDP, Bloc Quebecois and Green party supporters - would like to see Dion win the next election."

Wow!! This is shocking news to me. Checking Elections Canada results, "almost one-third" (30.2% to be exact) voted for the train-wreck Liberal Party in the last election. Of Course they would like to see him (any Liberal) win the next election. But this is apparently pre-Christmas headline news for CP and Yahoo.

I particularly LOVE this next spin on numbers, and this has to be pure spin if you are honest with yourself ... even to diehard Liberals. It's almost embarassing it's so blatant. Shame on the writer and/or editor.

Quote:

"Thirty-two per cent thought Dion, a former university political scientist, "seems like an academic who has trouble relating to the average person." But 39 per cent disagreed and 29 per cent were undecided.

On a somewhat more positive note, 32 per cent said Dion's "values are similar to my own," while 37 per cent disagreed and 31 per cent were unsure. And 33 per
cent said Dion is "a breath of fresh air in Canadian politics," while 41 percent disagreed and 26 per cent were undecided."

Let's see, ONLY thirty-two percent feel he's an out-of-touch academic who can't relate, but hey ... "on a more postive note" a WHOPPING 32% say he has values similar to my own and an even bigger 33% say he is "a breath of fresh air" (I'll assume that is a direct quote from the nice neutral question asked by pollsters in this "exclusive to the Canadian Press" poll.) Within margin of error, these two paragraphs contain exactly the same numbers for and against, but that statements that are pro-Dion are specifically spun as "positive", even though more respondents disagreed with the statements than agreed.

Remember, 30.2% voted for the Chretien/Martin version of the Liberals in the last election, and the margin of error is 3.1%. Yet this is deemed headline news on December 21, 2006.

Exactly what does "a breath of fresh air" mean? "Fresh" from 13 years of Liberal excess and corruption? Dion was in that cabinet. How could he possibly be "fresh"? "Fresh" from Stephen Harper's Conservative government? They've only been in power 9 months ... hardly long enough to be "stale". "Fresh" from the liberal media's view of how Canada should be run ... as a pacifist, interventionist, social collective? BINGO!

Decima CEO, Bruce Anderson is quoted as saying, "Clearly, he (Dion) has not yet accumulated much, if any, negative reputation". I agree, but there is little evidence of a positive reputation either.

From where I sit, the numbers seem to say that everyone who voted Liberal under the Chretien/Martin legacy in January, and who said they would vote Liberal in polling done Nov. 5-9 with a leaderless Liberal Party, are (gasp!) likely to vote Liberal under a new unknown new leader who happens to be Stephane Dion. I see little here to convince me that the answers to this poll would have been any different (within margin of error) no matter who had won the Liberal leadership, or that they are much different from the last election.

The people who answered favourably to these (in my opinion) "loaded" questions (ie. specifically designed to make him look good) would likely answer favourably to any Liberal leader. These are people who will likely never in a million years vote Conservative, and are thus not "swing voters" (ie. the ones who decide elections).

So I see no "news" here at all. I see only a predictable campaign by a very pro-Liberal media to try to make Stephane Dion look good (along with ongoing stories deliberately designed to make Stephen Harper look bad). See Stephen Taylor's blog, Dec. 22, 2006 "Globe and Mail too pessimistic".

I saw no hard polling questions regarding Stephane Dion's role as a cabinet minister in the Chretien government during the time of the sponsorship scandal, and how it is possible that such a long-standing cabinet minister from that sorry time couldn't have at least suspected that such corruption was rampant. I saw no questions about his dismal (not "spotty" ... DISMAL) record as environment minister (record and rhetoric are two completely different things). I saw no hard questions on his French citizenship ... "should the Prime Minister of Canada also be a French citizen?" I saw no hard questions on his arrogance and lack of tolerance to those lesser individuals than himself (as reportedly shown during questions about his French citizenship).

In other words, in my personal opinion, I saw only predictable pro-Liberal spin. I saw no headline news. I expect an ongoing campaign of such biased reporting. I believe that the parliamentary press corps do not like Stephen Harper.

Next polling question:

"If you saw Stephen Harper drowning puppies, would you
still think he is fit to lead Canada?"

Headline News: "Majority believe Harper Unfit to Lead"