A tipster to
OKPNS is questioning the
Tulsa World's selective reporting of an
"Oklahoma poll of likely voters". The tipster believes that to be balanced and accurate, The
World should have put the poll in context with the KWTV poll that showed the lieutenant governor's race is virtually tied.
"One poll shows a dead heat, which indicates the Hiett campaign may have the momentum; another poll, the Tulsa Whirled's, shows a 10-point lead for Askins. Which is right?"
The tipster continues:
"You'd think an objective story would mention both since the situation on the ground is not at all clear. In its story, the Tulsa World notably did not -- even going so far as to quote a Hiett press release, but omitting mention of the KWTV poll.
Interestingly, the World's poll story today comes after a story last week that also seemed to omit a lot of important contextual information regarding state Senate races. In that story, the World inexplicably included polling information on a Senate seat in Nichols Hills in the Oklahoma City metro area, rather than including data on a race everyone knows is tight (the Lawler-Sykes race in a district that runs from Moore to points south). "
Both questionable poll stories sort of remind me of how the Powerline Blog guys are always taking on the Minneapolis Star Trib for their purposeful efforts to dampen enthusiasm for GOP candidates by timing stories on poll results and selectively ignoring poll data.
Is the Tulsa World doing the same thing here? Who knows? This may be more of a case of one reporter's willful bias. But there does seem to be a pattern here. The World as a whole has certainly let its yellow-dog Democrat colors fly this year -- revealing more ties between the editorial page and its news pages than would seem to be appropriate for a "fair and balanced" newspaper."
Posted at 11/01/2006 11:14:00 AM
