Fibbers of the Fourth Estate

 

                                           Patrick Soon-Shiong: Is a newspaper a $500 million toy? 

                                           Photo credit: David Paul Morris, Bloomberg 

The Wall Street Journal writes: "Donald Trump has opened a narrow lead in the presidential race....." In the next paragraph, the newspaper notes that Trump's lead is "within the poll['s] margi[n] of error, meaning that either candidate could actually be ahead."

The Journal is lying. It knows full well that the race is too close to call. A poll is only a sample, subject to error. One cannot ignore errors that may exceed the estimated margin of victory.

The Journal also knows that most readers don't understand the margin of error, especially when it won't explain this simple statistical concept in the main story. So The Journal can safely assume that readers will ignore its weasel words in the second paragraph as just some confusing nonsense. The Journal has its Presidential cake and eats it, too. Most readers will accept its lie that Trump is winning. If any reader challenges this, it can always point to the weasel words.

Political pros who should know better argue to me that this lying really doesn't matter. After all, we're just talking about a couple of percentage points between the candidates. Well, it matters a hell of a lot if The CBS Evening News leads with "New polls show that the White House race is a dead heat" or with "New polls show that Trump leads."

The Journal, The Washington Post, and The New York Times -- and therefore the news media in general -- have lied about the Presidential polls throughout the race, by ignoring the margin of error. Probably this is because "It's a close race" is not as thrilling a headline as "X is winning." But I cannot dismiss the possibility that the reporters, editors, or executives of the newspaper skew the headlines in favor of their candidate. At The Los Angeles Times, the editor of editorials resigned a few days ago because the owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong, refused to let the newspaper endorse a Presidential candidate. It is a small step from interfering in a newspaper's editorials to interfering with its headlines, although I have no evidence of such headline-management.

One major story in this tight race is how the media's fibbing with statistics has affected the donations, strategizing, and voter choices that will determine the wee hours of November 6. One thing for sure: We won't read that story in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, or The New York Times. -- Leon Taylor, Seymour, Indiana, tayloralmaty@gmail.com

References

Katie Robertson. L.A. Times Editorial Chief Quits After Owner Blocks Harris Endorsement - The New York Times .  October 23, 2024. 

Aaron Zitner. Exclusive | Trump Takes Narrow Lead Over Harris in Closing Weeks of Race, WSJ Poll Shows - WSJ.  October 23, 2024.