by Frank James
A quick guided tour of some of the morning's most important, most interesting, or both, Washington-related stories.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress he would support an economic stimulus to boost the ailing economy so long as it was temporary, putting him at odds with some Republicans who are using the current slowdown to argue for making President Bush's tax cuts permanent.
South Carolina's Republican voters were showing little enthusiasm for their field of candidates just before Saturday's primary with the three segments of the state's conservative voters—fiscal, social and national security conservatives—having different candidates who appeal to them.
Housing starts in 2007 fell to their lowest level in 27 years because of the crisis in the home mortgage sector and the slowing economy and many economists believed that the housing market had yet to reach bottom.
Merrill Lynch, the world's largest brokerage firm, reported a net loss of nearly $10 billion in the fourth quarter, which contained a write-down of $14.6 billion tied to imploding securities backed by by subprime mortgages.
Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, has a rapid-response team in place in South Carolina that is being kept busy by anti-McCain smears making the rounds. It's an attempt by McCain's forces to squelch the kind of whispering campaign of distortions and lies that hurt him badly before that state's primary in 2000.
The U.S. military quintupled the number of airstrikes in Iraq in 2007 compared to 2006 as it received more information from Iraqis as a result of the increased security provided by the surge that allowed it to target more al Qaeda and insurgent locations.
Abortions in the U.S. dropped to their lowest level in 2005, the last year for which complete statistics exist, since 1975, 1.2 million, a new report said.
Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign has been challenged by the need, accelerated by his Iowa success and fast-approaching Tsunami Tuesday in which 22 states will hold primaries, to run a national campaign with an inexperienced staff and not enough money.
Efforts by states and localities to offer universal health care plans to their citizens have run up against a federal law that prohibits states from requiring or regulating employer-provided benefits, including health insurance.
• 
• 
• 
Comments
Today's story the media and the Swamp won't report on, for obvious reasons--a poll showing that the public has no trust in the media and thinks it has a left-wing bias.
"FAIRFIELD, Conn.—A Sacred Heart University Poll found significantly declining percentages of Americans saying they believe all or most of media news reporting. In the current national poll, just 19.6% of those surveyed could say they believe all or most news media reporting. This is down from 27.4% in 2003. Just under one-quarter, 23.9%, in 2007 said they believe little or none of reporting while 55.3% suggested they believe some media news reporting....
The perception is growing among Americans that the news media attempts to influence public opinion – from 79.3% strongly or somewhat agreeing in 2003 to 87.6% in 2007.
And, 86.0% agreed (strongly or somewhat) that the news media attempts to influence public policies – up from 76.7% in 2003.
Americans surveyed provided poor ratings for the national news media on six different characteristics measured. The average overall positive rating across all six characteristics measured was 33.4%. The highest positive rating, 40.7%, was recorded for quality of reporting followed by accuracy of reporting at 36.9% and keeping any personal bias out of stories (33.3%).
Other low positive ratings included: fairness (31.3%), presenting an even balance of views (30.4%) and presenting negative and positive news equally (27.5%).
“Americans know bias and imbalance when they see it and they don’t like it. When most service organizations strive for consumer satisfaction ratings in the high eighties to low nineties, an overall positive rating of 40.7% is dismal,” said Jerry C. Lindsley, director of the Sacred Heart University Polling Institute. He added, “Americans know that it’s just not that hard to present both sides and keep personal bias at home.”
By four-to-one margins, Americans surveyed see The New York Times (41.9% to 11.8%) and National Public Radio (40.3% to 11.2%) as mostly or somewhat liberal over mostly or somewhat conservative.
By a three-to-one margin, Americans see news media journalists and broadcasters (45.4% to 15.7%) as mostly or somewhat liberal over mostly or somewhat conservative.
And, by a two-to-one margin, Americans see CNN (44.9% to 18.4%) and MSNBC (38.8% to 15.8%) as mostly or somewhat liberal over mostly or somewhat conservative.
Just Fox News was seen as mostly and somewhat conservative (48.7%) over mostly or somewhat liberal (22.3%).
The most trusted national TV news organizations, for accurate reporting, in declining order included: Fox News (27.0%), CNN (14.6%), and NBC News (10.90%). These were followed by ABC News (7.0%), local news (6.9%), CBS News (6.8%) MSNBC (4.0%), PBS News (3.0%), CNBC (0.6%) and CBN (0.5%)."
see www.sacredheart.edu for more.
Posted by: Bruce | January 17, 2008 11:20 AM
rncbruce,
So what?
If the media is liberal (and that's a big IF, I don't think Sumner Redstone is a liberal), I love, you hate it, and I love that you hate it.
But since it was reported in the media, it can't be true and it must be biased, according to you and the poll. So you are using circular logic to disprove exactly what you want to believe.
Never the less, using cherry picked information to try to dispute presentation of data you disagree with, rather than attacking the data itself just goes to show it is true, because obviously, you can't find information to dispute the actual report.
Posted by: rncbs | January 17, 2008 1:54 PM
A Sacred Heart University Poll? Oh sweet Jesus!!
The guy who thinks most polls are crap, finally found one he likes.
bruce whinerdice...stuck on stupid.
Posted by: dt | January 17, 2008 3:24 PM