Bill Plante: "Well the bad news has been pretty much nonstop for the Bush White House over the past few months. Hurricane Katrina, the Medicare drug program, eavesdropping, the situation in Iraq, the ports deal; it's all combined to bring the President's rating to a new low."
Later in his report, he informed the viewers that the President’s numbers are falling in his handling on the war on terrorism as well:
Bill Plante: "All this has brought the President's rating on handling of the war on terror, which was consistently his strongest attribute with the public, down nine points since January to another new low."
However, like the report from last night’s "Evening News", there were some facts the viewer was not informed of. First, there was no mention of the poll’s internals. As Greg Sheffield has noted, there were far more Democrats polled than Republicans, so it would make sense that the President’s numbers would be low, even when it comes to the War on Terror. Second, given these internals, there are some shocking findings. The public thinks the media blew the Cheney shooting story out of proportion, 66% say the media devoted too much time to the story, and by a margin of 51%-47%, Americans approve of President Bush authorizing wiretaps to fight terrorism.
Later in the program, Amy Walters from the Cook Political Report discussed the meaning of the poll with Julie Chen. Although the interview was fairly bland, without much bias, it allowed CBS to allot more time to hyping "record low" poll numbers which were the result of an obviously skewed poll.
