With COVID cases, violent crime, inflation, and illegal immigration all on the rise after the first six months of Joe Biden’s presidency, it’s no surprise that pessimism about the country’s future has surged in a new ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday morning. However, rather than provide full coverage of this bad news for the Democrat in the White House, the liberal network only managed a paltry 91 seconds of air time divided among three broadcasts on Sunday and Monday.
“Our new ABC News/Ipsos poll out this morning, it shows a significant drop in optimism about the direction of our country over the next year,” co-host Whit Johnson announced on Sunday’s Good Morning America. He noted the size of the plummet in America’s mood: “Take a look here, only 45% of those polled are optimistic, that’s down 19 points from May, when it was 64%.”
Turning to ABC News political director Rick Klein during the 48-second discussion, Johnson searched for a reason: “Rick, what are the key factors behind all of this?” Klein explained: “Crime and fears around gun violence are a piece of this, as are things like immigration, inflation and, critically, the pandemic. We saw in this poll President Biden’s approval rating on handling of COVID down nine points. That’s just since April.”
Klein particularly worried about the political impact on the Democratic Party: “The country is in a much different place than it was just a few months ago and President Biden and the Democrats should see that as blaring warning signs.”
Despite those “blaring warning signs,” on This Week, moderator and former Clinton White House hack George Stephanopoulos at first tried to hype the new poll as good news for Biden: “President Biden has hit the six month mark in office, holding majority support from the American people. Our brand new poll with Ipsos also shows that 52% of Americans believe that Biden is following through on his campaign promises.”
The host could only manage 15 seconds on the negative finding for the President and his party: “But it also shows that most Americans are pessimistic about the year ahead, a dramatic 20-point swing from optimism in May. As the country faces an array of challenges – a resurgent coronavirus, rising crime, inflation, our politics as divided as ever.”
On Monday’s GMA, Stephanopoulos again briefly brought up the polling data: “And, Rachel, we have a new poll out that shows a pretty dramatic drop in optimism among the American people over the last couple months.” White House correspondent Rachel Scott responded:
Yeah, and this number is actually down 20 points since May, George. Our latest poll showing that the majority of Americans, 55%, say that they’re actually pessimistic about the direction of the country. And President Biden also seeing his lowest approval ratings for his handling of the pandemic, with just about 60% of Americans approving of his response, George.
That exchange amounted to just 28 seconds.
In contrast, the show later devoted two minutes and 21 seconds, or 141 seconds, to singer Jennifer Lopez getting back together with actor Ben Affleck. Not only was that five times more than the polling coverage during Monday’s broadcast, it was nearly a full minute more that the total air time the network provided to the poll over 24 hours.
Beyond trying to downplay the bad news for Biden by barely mentioning it, the tone of the very limited coverage was that the President was a victim of circumstance rather than being responsible for the problems facing the nation.
The tiny amount of time devoted to Americans being pessimistic about the future under Biden was brought to ABC viewers by Google and Dell. You can fight back by letting these advertisers know what you think of them sponsoring such content.
Here is a full transcript of the limited polling coverage on July 25 & 26:
Good Morning America
07/25/21
8:34 AM(...)
WHIT JOHNSON: I do want to turn to another topic, though. Our new ABC News/Ipsos poll out this morning, it shows a significant drop in optimism about the direction of our country over the next year. Take a look here, only 45% of those polled are optimistic, that’s down 19 points from May, when it was 64%. Rick, what are the key factors behind all of this?
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: America Less Optimistic? ABC News /Ipsos: 45% Optimistic About the Future]
RICK KLEIN: Yeah, Whit, really striking. Crime and fears around gun violence are a piece of this, as are things like immigration, inflation and, critically, the pandemic. We saw in this poll President Biden’s approval rating on handling of COVID down nine points. That’s just since April. The country is in a much different place than it was just a few months ago and President Biden and the Democrats should see that as blaring warning signs. These things are changing, and they are changing fast, in a whole lot of different directions.
(...)
This Week
07/25/21
9:01 AM(...)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: As we come on the air this morning, President Biden has hit the six month mark in office, holding majority support from the American people. Our brand new poll with Ipsos also shows that 52% of Americans believe that Biden is following through on his campaign promises. But it also shows that most Americans are pessimistic about the year ahead, a dramatic 20-point swing from optimism in May. As the country faces an array of challenges – a resurgent coronavirus, rising crime, inflation, our politics as divided as ever.
(...)
Good Morning America
07/26/21
7:16 AM(...)
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And, Rachel, we have a new poll out that shows a pretty dramatic drop in optimism among the American people over the last couple months.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Optimism Falling; New Poll Shows Growing Concern Over Direction of Country]
RACHEL SCOTT: Yeah, and this number is actually down 20 points since May, George. Our latest poll showing that the majority of Americans, 55%, say that they’re actually pessimistic about the direction of the country. And President Biden also seeing his lowest approval ratings for his handling of the pandemic, with just about 60% of Americans approving of his response, George.
(...)
