Another Yahoo headline bias - listing only poll results good for Bush

[Democat]

This is more of the same from Yahoo/AP. On the front page of Yahoo right now, they have the following headline:

AP Poll: More Voters See Bush As Decisive

It is linked to this article:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040713/ap_on_el_pr/candidate_qualities&cid=694&ncid=716

Here is a link to the same story from a source with a more fair headline:

AP Poll: More voters see Bush as decisive; more see Kerry as intelligent

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/07/12/politics0150EDT0406.DTL

Yahoo headline writers seem to almost always find a way to spin for Bush.

The story actually says that voters see Kerry as smarter than Bush along with seeing Bush as decisive. Instead of listing both results in the headline, or even just listing the good news for Kerry, Yahoo/AP once again only listed the good news for Bush in the article headline.

If you read the article, you will see other little attacks on Kerry like this one:

The Bush re-election team spent more than $80 million during the spring trying to portray Kerry as a flip-flopper and a tax raiser. While the president has been unable to gain a lead in the race against Kerry, his campaign succeeded in raising doubts about Kerry's willingness to take a stand.

Kerry played a role in that perception after voting to authorize the war in Iraq (news - web sites), then struggling to explain his views on war when it was clear many Democratic voters in the primaries were opposed.

They list Bush's talking points against Kerry and then re-inforce them with their own editorial comments, without doing the same for Kerry.

This is so common that I hesitate to even bother posting about it anymore, but it is still infuriating.

[Ruffhowse]

1. This is especially bad because...

...these AP stories are reprinted verbatim in most local newspapers around the country. If you check your local paper, you'll be surprised by how many national and international stories come right from the AP wire services.