Fox Does A Disservice To Its Viewers

Brian Stelter, CNN’s host of Reliable Sources, decided he would dispute the findings in the Rasmussen Daily Presidential Tracking Poll.

The poll shows that 45% of likely U.S. voters approve of President Trump’s job performance; 53% disapprove.  According to the poll for December 29, 2017 the President has virtually the same job approval ratings that The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer earned at the end of his first year as president.  On that date, 46% of voters approved and 53% disapproved.  

When President Trump tweeted about the polling this morning he noted, “While the Fake News loves to talk about my so-called low approval rating, @foxandfriends just showed that my rating on Dec. 28, 2017 was approximately the same as President Obama on Dec. 28, 2009 which was 47%...and this despite massive negative Trump coverage & Russia hoax!”

Lumpy “The Hairless Hall Monitor” Stelter fired back at Trump directly with:

This is a prime example of how “Fox & Friends” does a disservice to viewers: https://t.co/ErJBOTAHbo

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) December 29, 2017

For context the President’s tweet came at 7:46 AM.  Stelter responded to the President’s tweet at 8:25 AM.  Then Jennifer Agiesta, CNN’s Polling Director, hastily published a response online at 11:27 AM.

“President Donald Trump claimed Friday that his approval ratings at this point in his presidency rival those of Barack Obama, citing a report from ‘Fox & Friends.’  But the truth, across almost every reputable poll, is that Trump's approval ratings have lagged behind those of nearly all of his predecessors, including Obama, since day one of his presidency.”

Agiesta assailed Rasmussen’s methodology arguing, “They claim to interview likely voters, without specifying in what election those people are likely to cast ballots, nor how they are identified. Polls conducted this way do not meet CNN's standards for reporting, because they can under-represent certain segments of the population.”

She continues, “Rasmussen's polling received a C+ rating in FiveThirtyEight's most recent pollster rankings, and it has been found to lean toward the GOP when compared with other pollsters, which means it typically understated support for Obama and has a tendency to overstate support for Trump when compared with other polls.”

On June 16, 2015, Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight infamy said, “Trump has a better chance of caneoing in another “Home Alone” movie with Macaulay Culkin—or playing in the NBA Finals—than winning the Republican nomination.”

On August 11, 2015 Silver said, “Our emphatic prediction is simply that Trump will not win the nomination. It’s not even clear that he’s trying to do so.”

Then came this pip on November 23, 2015. “So, could Trump win?  Nobody remotely like Trump has won a major-party nomination in the modern era.  For my money, that adds up to Trump’s chances being higher than 0 but (considerably) less than 20 percent. Your mileage may vary.”

Hillary Clinton has an 81% chance of winning the election to Donald Trump’s 19%, polling analyst Nate Silver said on July 29, 2016 in his first model of the 2016 presidential election.  Silver got it wrong.  His methodology is as rigorous as that of a strip mall physician in The Simpsons.

Perhaps Stelter and the crew at the Most Busted Name In News should stick to hourly box truck updates and how many Diet Cokes® the President consumes.