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Times Watch for November 24, 2004

A Fact-Starved Tidbit on Rising U.S. Hunger

     Katharine Seelye and David Rosenbaum hit the highlights of Congress' just-completed spending bill ("Big Spending Bill Makes a Winner of Mars Program But Many Losers Elsewhere"), and take a chestnut of a liberal anecdote as fact: "In a reflection of a growing need among the working poor, demonstrated in lengthening lines at food banks and pantries, Congress approved an increase of nearly $1.5 billion in the food stamp program."

     This is just the latest example of the Times (along with most of the mainstream media) uncritically swallowing anecdotal stories portraying hunger as an ever-worsening problem. The pattern is most apparent during the holidays, with the well-timed release of the annual U.S. Mayors Conference study on hunger and homelessness, which every year implausibly finds hunger and homelessness increasing by double-digit percentages.

For the rest of the rundown, click here.

• Congress | Hunger | David Rosenbaum | Katharine Seelye

Americans "At Best Ambivalent" About Bush's Plans

     There'll be no honeymoon at the Times for Bush's second term, judging by the play given Tuesday's front-page poll analysis from Adam Nagourney and Janet Elder, headlined "Americans Show Clear Concerns On Bush Agenda."

     They begin: "After enduring a brutally fought election campaign, Americans are optimistic about the next four years under President Bush, but have reservations about central elements of the second-term agenda he presented in defeating Senator John Kerry, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll. At a time when the White House has portrayed Mr. Bush's 3.5-million-vote victory as a mandate, the poll found that Americans are at best ambivalent about Mr. Bush's plans to reshape Social Security, rewrite the tax code, cut taxes and appoint conservative judges to the bench. There is continuing disapproval of Mr. Bush's handling of the war in Iraq, with a plurality now saying it was a mistake to invade in the first place."

     As Real Clear Politics notes, the Times' polling partner CBS has a take on the story that manages to report the findings without the negative slant: "There's a difference between reporting the numbers straight -- which is what CBS News did, to their credit -- and constructing an article to present the numbers in the worst possible light."

For the rest of the poll analysis, click here.

• George W. Bush | Adam Nagourney | Polls | Robin Toner

E-mail TimesWatch Director, Clay Waters, with TimesWatch feedback at cwaters@mediaresearch.org