Some polls easier to find than others

It’s too funny. If there is a bad poll out there on Bush or one of his pals, the headlines come-a-blaring…but if the polls favor something about him, or disfavor a favorite…well…then those headlines become a bit elusive.

This observation by Newsbusters, for example, was pretty depressing to read:

Despite the decision by the editors of CBSNews.com not to highlight the finding in a new CBS News/New York Times poll, of how 61 percent believe President Bush authorized wiretaps in order to “fight terrorism,” with just 29 percent saying he did it just to “expand the powers of the presidency,” on Thursday’s CBS Evening News John Roberts alerted viewers to the finding. Roberts relayed: “On the NSA spying program, President Bush went into today’s press conference with a boost. A new CBS News/New York Times poll found 61 percent of Americans believe the eavesdropping is meant to fight terror and the majority support that [53 percent back Bush authorizing wiretaps].”

I like CBS’s Public Eye – I particularly like Vaughn Ververs’ pieces – he’s a clean and crisp writer – but I’m disappointed to see that CBS buried the “good” and emphasized the “bad.” It’s just so tiring.

But it seems to be a problem systemic to the whole body of the Fourth Estate.

I wrote that this story would be buried but I didn’t realize it would be done so thoroughly.

If you try to find a story in the mainstream press about the Gallup Poll finding that 51% of those polled said they would “definately not” vote for Hillary Clinton in ’08…well…it’s pre-tty difficult.

There is this – an observation at NRO that the story was all-but-impossible to find online, excepting a short piece in the NY Post by Deborah Orin. They mention that USA Today reported on Tony Blair’s numbers in the same poll but not Hillary’s.

I tried googling, hillary clinton gallup. Nuthin’. A recent “most admired” poll and old stuff from 5 months ago and 8 months ago, much more favorable. I tried searching with, hillary clinton gallup poll numbers 51%. Same stuff.

And curiously, not even the various, varied blogger pieces on the poll showed up in the search, although you can pull them up on Technorati.

Hard not to notice, is all.