Even when Obama inches ahead in the polls, it goes unreported by some news outlets.
For example, the Wall Street Journal reported: “As in recent polls, Americans are split on President Barack Obama’s job performance, with 47% approving and 48% disapproving. But a majority disapproves of his performance on the economy. And six in 10, including 83 percent of independents and a quarter of Democrats, say they are only somewhat or not at all confident Mr. Obama has the right policies to improve it.”
The Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, taken August 9-12, did indeed show Obama with a 47 percent approval rating, 48 percent disapproval, and 5 percent unsure. However, his approval rating was up from 45 percent from the previous poll in June. The 2-percent increase took place while the disapproval numbers remained the same and the unsure segment decreased by 2 percent.
USA Today also failed to credit Obama with his slight improvement in its polls.
Susan Page, writing in the June 15 edition of the paper, reported their poll showed eight in 10 Americans expect the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to hurt the economy and drive up the cost of gas and food. It also reported 71 percent of respondents believed Obama had not been tough enough on BP.
Unreported was Obama’s approval ratings had gone up 4 percent since the last poll in March to a respectable 50 percent. At the same point in his presidency, Reagan had a 45 percent approval rating.
http://www.washingtoninformer.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4447:reality-and-poll-reporting-are-poles-apart&catid=51:national&Itemid=114