Semi-Good Poll, Misleading Report/Linkfest

Linkfest info below

---

I’ve found Newsmax to be pretty consistently lax with the facts. Oh, the facts are there, but I have to dig for them to remove the dlant of Newsmax’s “reporting”–just a right-wing version of typical left wing media tactics.

That’s not smart of Newsmax, IMO. Immitating liars to counter their lies just doesn’t work well.

Here’s an example from a recent email:

“NewsMax Poll: Americans Want Fred Thompson in ’08”

Oh, really? And how do you know that, Newsmax?

“An Internet poll sponsored by NewsMax.com reveals that Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of Fred Thompson running for president in 2008.

Our “Should Fred Thompson Run for President” poll of nearly 100,000 people also disclosed that the former senator from Tennessee and “Law & Order” star would trounce all leading Republican candidates in a primary.”

Look, lefties are NOT going to get Newsmax mail (I’m not sure why I do, since I don’t consider myself a “righty”), let alone participate in a poll that is run by Newsmax. So the results were (nearly all) all self-selected Newsmax right-wing readers, OK? I didn’t take the poll (never do participate in their things). I don’t fit their demographic all that well.

So, what else did this poll of self-selected right-wingers determine? That among this self-selected (NOT random sample) group of about 100,000 the Q/A went something like this:

1) What is your overall opinion of Fred Thompson?
Favorable: 94 percent
Unfavorable: 2 percent
No Opinion: 4 percent

2) Is Fred Thompson your candidate for president in 2008?
Yes: 77 percent
No: 23 percent

3) In the following field, who is your 2008 candidate?
John McCain: 1.66 percent
Condi Rice: 2.64 percent
Mike Huckabee: .99 percent
Miss Romney: 4.14 percent
Rudy Giuliani: 7.53 percent
Fred Thompson: 62.54 percent
Tom Tancredo: 2.78 percent
Ron Paul: 1.25 percent
Newt Gingrich: 12.25 percent
Duncan Hunter: 1.23 percent
Sam Brownback: .97 percent
Other: 1.99 percent

4) In a Republican primary of the following, who would you vote for?
Rudy Giuliani: 7 percent
John McCain: 2 percent
Newt Gingrich: 13 percent
Fred Thompson: 78 percent

5) If the 2008 President race was between Fred Thompson & Hillary Clinton, who would you vote for?
Fred Thompson: 98.7 percent
Hillary Clinton: 1.3 percent

Now, it’s certainly encouraging that Fred Thompson is so popular among a list of Republican candidates/potential candidates, cos he’s among the best of a bad lot (Tancredo beats him hands down on the MAJOR issue of border control, but Thompson’s still better than any of the others on that issue, too, from what I can tell).

But. Remember I said “best of a bad lot” and that’s because all of them are still big government types. Just Democraps dragging their heels, as it were, when it comes to government interference in citizens’ daily lives.

But back on point: Newsmax is just another example of too many (how many is too many? One is too many) folks seeking to counter leftist crap who resort to twisting and outright lies at times to counter… twisting and outright lies by the left (all the time).

Taking a poll of right-wingers is all right. Deliberately misstating poll results as referring to “Americans” in general–well, deliberately unless the writer and editor that viewed the thing are genuinely stupid–that’s just stupid and wrong.

---

THIS is an open trackbacks post. Link to THIS post and track back. 🙂

If you have a linkfest/open trackback post to promote OR if you simply want to promote a post via the linkfests/open trackback posts others are offering, GO TO LINKFEST HAVEN DELUXE! Just CLICK the link above or the graphic immediately below.

If you want to host your own linkfests but have not yet done so, check out the Open Trackbacks Alliance. The FAQ there is very helpful in understanding linkfests/open trackbacks.

---