Media mum on new Gallup poll showing values fourth priority, not first

[helderheid]

Media mum on new Gallup poll showing values fourth priority, not first

http://mediamatters.org/items/200412200001

On December 14, Editor & Publisher reported that a post-election nationwide Gallup poll found that "values" tied for fourth place as "the most important problem facing this country today." The Gallup poll's findings contradicted numerous media reports, based on exit polls, that declared "moral values" was the most influential issue in the 2004 presidential election. According to the December 14 Gallup poll, "moral values" tied with unemployment and jobs, and ranked lower than the war in Iraq, terrorism, and the economy. Immediately after the election, the media was quick to trumpet values as the decisive issue -- yet there was almost no coverage of the recent Gallup results that could, as Editor & Publisher noted, "deal a death blow to the whole idea."

Here are some post-election comments from media figures on the role of "moral values" in shaping the election, as Media Matters for America previously documented:

Dan Rather (CBS anchor): "Moral values -- we'll give you a look at the surprise issue that trumped the war, terror, and the economy as the decisive issue in the election."

Anderson Cooper (CNN anchor): "Well, for months, the presidential campaigns and pundits have debated whether the driving issues of this election would be Iraq or the economy. Turns out it was neither. Moral values ruled this election, with 22 percent of voters citing moral issues as their No. 1 concern."

Paula Zahn (CNN anchor): "Tonight, it is the decisive issue, the one pollsters didn't see coming -- millions of people voting their moral values. ... The exit polls are quite stunning, at least to some folks looking at these numbers for the first time, when it appears that moral issues trumped just about every other issue on the map here."

Pat Buchanan (MSNBC analyst and former Republican presidential candidate): "It wasn't the economy or the war in Iraq or even the war on terror. Exit polls tell us moral values were most important in choosing a president."

Bill Plante (CBS News White House correspondent): "In the end, it was not the Iraq war or the economy, the two issues most often mentioned as voters' biggest concerns, but moral values, which were the biggest factor in motivating people to go to the polls."

What are they saying now about the new numbers that contradict their earlier claims? Not a thing. A Nexis search of "All News" sources from December 13 through December 19 for the words "Gallup" and "values" yielded only one relevant result: Ted Vaden, public editor for the Raleigh, N.C.-based News & Observer, noted in a December 19 column (free registration required), "The most recent Gallup Poll places the war in Iraq as the top public concern nationally (well ahead of "values," we might note.)"

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[understandinglife]

1. The Big "Values" Lie Is Too Hot To Touch Because....

...as Pravda reminds us today, we live in a totalitarian state who's principal value -- unmitigated greed -- is well documented in the types of fiascoes sanctioned by that state and the grisly, illegal war in Iraq takes the gold medal; thus, Bush joins Hitler and Stalin as Time magazines 'tyrant of the year.'

If we want to be something other than a faux democracy we had best do something definitive on 6 Jan 2005.

Senator Kerry -- are you going to do that press conference, call to action at Independence Hall or at the Lincoln memorial sometime before 6 Jan 2005?

As they say "THE WORLD IS WATCHING" -- everyone, it's put up or shut up time. Please understand this. We either take a stand or we will live with the consequences of acquiescing to the reality that America is NOT A DEMOCRACY.

Peace.

"I'm an American patriot, not a pro-fraud theocrat"

[understandinglife]

2. Cross posted at Media Matters (n/t)

[texpatriot2004]

3. What a crock of #$%^ they tried to sell. "moral values" voters

Right?

Perhaps it was the INVISIBLE voters who cast their votes on "moral values."

[understandinglife]

5. electrons are indeed invisible; that's why Rove loves to use them.

[genieroze]

4. Contact them.

Hey morons. I got ya moral values. LOSERS!

[KnowerOfLogic]

6. These poll results are 'off-message' as far as the MSM goes;

it is so blantantly obvious that the MSM is nothing but one big bunch of whores. They don't care who f**ks them, as long as they get their money and their face time. Journalism in america is as dead as democracy.

[regularjoe]

7. Actually, I heard about the these other poll results at least a week ago

It might have been on NPR. I heard that when people were presented with suggested choices (although they could say anything) moral values was top but when they weren't given any suggested choices and they just said something moral values turned out to be fourth or something like that. Actually I probably heard about it 2 or 3 weeks ago. Is this a "new" poll or an old poll someone just found?

regularjoe