Please consider this article from last week in the
Baltimore Sun. On the surface, it looks like bad news for Maryland’s Democratic
governor. But when you read the story, you can see it’s not necessarily so.
Note that last year, the Sun was purchased by the owner/operator of Sinclair Broadcasting, a nationwide network of conservatively-slanted TV stations, including Fox-affiliated outlets. The change in editorial slant was more like a U-turn, but unlike before, the “slant” now occupies the news sections.
To summarize the first few paragraphs, a Maryland poll
shows lousy ratings for TFG, his pet Elon, (or is it the other way around?), and a majority approval for the
Governor. Governor Moore’s approval rating was 55%, versus 36% and 30% for the
other two. But the Governor’s numbers fell by five points so that’s what makes
the headline. Don’t underestimate the importance of headlines; for many
readers, that’s all they ever see of a story, so it makes an impact. Multiply
this effect by every relevant story the paper runs and you can see the desired
effect take root.
So this article could just as easily have said, Poll shows “Governor’s approval almost twice that of
Trump and Musk.” But they want to leave a negative imprint on the reader
instead.
They could also have highlighted that “Among Democrats, 83% of the respondents
approve of the job Moore is doing.” That’s a big chunk of the base. Only
17% or less opposed? Sounds like he’s doing what he was elected to do.
The poll goes on to inquire about how economic conditions
are being felt by residents. They lead with “only 42% say economic conditions for them and their families fall in
the “excellent” or “pretty good” range.” To me that sounds pretty good. To
think 42% of the state thinks they have it good? Compare that to Arkansas or
Mississippi. They also lump the 58% who think they’re doing “only fair” and “poor”
together. If “fair” is even half of that subtotal, that means 71% of the state
thinks they’re doing “excellent,” “pretty good,” and “fair.” Those are stats I’d
campaign on, but the Sun has reported them like a dirty secret scandalously revealed.
Again, compare those stats to those of the red “parasite” states.
There’s also a paragraph on the question of whether the state is “moving in the right/wrong direction.” I’m always troubled by this question because there are any number of reasons someone might say an entity is moving in the wrong direction, even when they support the person in charge. Personally, I think that this state and every state is moving in the wrong direction because of what’s happening in DC. And if I responded as such to the poll, you can see how they'd use that stat as an attack on the governor, which was clearly not my intent. You should always disregard this question when it comes to polls.
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