You’ve got to watch this video. CNN’s Soledad O’ Brien ran a focus group of self declared Republicans, Democrats and undecideds during the Palin/Biden debate.
Soledad asked them immediately after the debate, “How many thought Joe Biden won the debate tonight?”
I’d say about half the hands go up. O’Brien then inexplicably says, “So, looks overwhelming.” Then she asks who thought Palin won. Again, about half the hands go up and she describes it as “small hands.” Then she quickly declares Biden the winner and calls it a day.
Hey, how about a roll call, Soledad? Now to my eye, it looks pretty evenly split. I counted 12 for Biden and 11 for Palin. But take a look for yourself. Call me naive, but this kind of blatant bias still has the power to surprise me a little still. And for some reason when it comes to Sarah Palin, the media has just lost any connection with reality, decency, fairness…etc…
Now, does she forget that we can see her? Or does she think we can’t count? Does she not know about TiVo? Or perhaps she can’t imagine a universe that would allow the thought of Sarah Palin whooping up on her candidate?
h/t to Megan McArdle
October 4, 2008 at 1:59 pm
It never ceases to amaze me, the arrogance (?), thoughtlessness(?), or what?? I think MSM just doesn’t consider that the “folks” might just think differently…or, if they do, they’re obviously stupid and need to be enlightened. Thoughtful, insightful analysis has disappeared; I don’t care if someone disagrees with me, so long as they can logically support their position – and I hope that I can do the same!
October 4, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Perfect example of catching the extreme bias at CNN. Perfect.
I also caught the farce. It was followed by asking how many people think Obama will win the election?
Most people raised their hand.
Then she asked how many people are voting for Obama, only half the people raised their hand.
So if she took a vote there for President, Obama may not have won.
She should work for some of these polls with these non-quantitive, opinion-influencing questions.
October 4, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Thanks for capturing this. It’s called ‘groupthink.’ There is no bias-free media anymore. That’s why God gave us blogs!!!
October 4, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Wow.
And that is pretty much all that I can say. Wow.
[Okay, I will add that I can’t stand to watch the media coverage of this election any more. I’m glad you’re doing the dirty work for me.]
October 4, 2008 at 5:17 pm
I counted 8 to 8, and I see one guy had both of his hands went up, must be liberal!
Here We Are
October 4, 2008 at 8:31 pm
She’s the Michael Scott of journalists. “How many of you think Biden won? One, two, three…too many to count!”
October 5, 2008 at 2:14 am
CNN has to be biased to offset the bias of Faux News. 😉
I’m not voting for Obama either, of course, but I do think he will win. So that show of hands should not surprise anyone.
October 5, 2008 at 2:34 am
So it’s not their fault Fox made them do it?
October 5, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Leftists remind me of Adam Savage: “I reject your reality and substitute my own!”
October 5, 2008 at 2:01 pm
After a close analysis, and using Photoshop to dial them in, I count 15-14 for… McCain! Seriously, check the video closely yourselves, and keep close track of who raises their hand for who.
Some of them start raising their hand for one candidate, but then put it down because they heard wrong, then put their hand up for the other candidate.
You’re able to see the votes of four people who are not fully in the video, because you can see their hands going up and down at the edges of the shot.
October 5, 2008 at 2:02 pm
And by McCain I of course meant Palin 🙂
October 5, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Compare that with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTkqosRiyYo
That’s fair and balanced for you.
October 5, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Yeah, I mean, jeez. This is so much worse than FOX commentators calling for Obama’s assassination, calling Obama a Muslim, calling his wife his “baby mama” and on and on…
Don’t hate just because your candidate chose an embarrassment of a running mate. The only criteria for a Palin “win” was that she didn’t mess up as bad as people thought she would.
October 5, 2008 at 3:21 pm
I saw that and was wondering if there were more people in the room that I couldn’t see or what, because it didn’t look overwhelming to me. It looked like an even split.
The media has gone completely insane.
October 5, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Actually, people who are saying that it’s even are the ones with the biased eye. Please take care to watch for the movement of hands along the sides, if you pay close attention not to just look at the center then you’ll see about 15-8.
October 5, 2008 at 5:34 pm
I spent time with photoshop go through very carefully and identifying each persons movement (there also people off camera by the way) and Biden did win by a bit. Please do some real research before you post this crap.
October 5, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Three points:
1) You can’t see everyone within the moderator’s view. Given that every other poll says Biden was the winner, it’s not unreasonable to give her the benefit of the doubt.
2) Those saying Biden won tended to take longer to raise their hands. I’m guessing that’s because anyone holding this view is a moron who requires extra time to process the question.
3) Among those we can see, the count is in fact for Biden. The best way to assess votes are to look at when people are putting their hands down.
Top row left side: 3 Biden, 1 Palin
middle, left side: 3 Biden (inc. disembodied hand from the left side of the screen), 4 Palin
bottom, left side: 4 Biden, 2 Palin
top right: 2 Biden, 1 Palin
middle right: 1 Biden, 3 Palin
bottom right: 2 Biden, 3 Palin
That’s 15-14 Biden. Admittedly not “overwhelming”, but then see the previous two points.
October 5, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Oops, that would be “Those who think PALIN won took longer to raise their hands”. Pretty bad timing on that mistake, given my subsequent speculation… 🙂
October 5, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Hey, thanks for bringing this one up. I did my own analysis along with animated gif and counted Biden with 15, and Palin with 14leaving probably 1 or 2 participants that cannot be seen. Though you are right. It is not “overwhelming.” That would be the Luntz Focus Group.
Check out the animated gif here.
October 6, 2008 at 2:17 am
Welcome to the propaganda wing of the socialist democrat party!