Let's count the problems with The Hill's Tea Party headline

[meegbear]

(Lets!)

It was like the Lollapalooza of bad headlines -- lots of acts on multiple stages.

Here it is:

Public favors Tea Party over top Dems

Okay, first of all, as the Outside the Beltway rightly pointed out, "comparing an amorphous group to specific individuals is pointless." I.e. Dear Mr and Mrs. America, who do you have a higher opinion of, this kinda/semi-political party that has no official leaders, candidates, national agenda, and responsibilities, or these high-profile Democratic pols who have to make controversial policy decisions all the time and get maligned everyday by right-wing media?

That comparison just doesn't work.

Second, it turns out the polling data that The Hill article refers to reveals that, as a party, the Democratic Party rates higher than the Tea Party, which means the headline could have read:

Public favors Dems over Tea Party

Third, according to the same polling data, the Tea Party rates higher than the GOP, which means the headline could have read:

Public favors Tea Party over GOP

In other words, in two of the three scenarios, the proper headline would have meant bad news for the GOP. But instead of using either of those logical headlines, The Hill opted for the illogical one that compared apples/oranges and slammed "top Dems."

UPDATED: Newsweek dissected the same polling data and came up with this headline:

New Poll Gives Democrats Shot of Good News

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201008130005

[babylonsister]

1. Thanks, meegbear and MM. I know the Hill has a r/w

slant; this confirms it...again. They sometimes have neutral stories, and then there are prolific stories similar to this.

[rock]

2. Excellent exposition

Thanks