L.A. Times: California “In Play” — Just Kidding!
Recently, I mocked the L.A. Times for declaring that Arizona was “in play” for John Kerry — because Kerry was only 16 points behind Bush in the most recent Arizona poll.
Tomorrow, the L.A. Times reports that Kerry leads Bush in California by 15 points. That’s one percentage point less than Bush’s lead in Arizona. Naturally, the paper has declared California to be “in play” for Bush — right?
I’m joking, of course. The story’s actual headline is In California, Voters Stay in Kerry’s Corner:
California voters remain strongly in favor of ousting President Bush and replacing him with Sen. John F. Kerry despite Bush’s recent gains in popularity nationwide, a new Los Angeles Times poll has found.
While we’re doing “compare and contrast,” allow me to point out my favorite line in the article:
With the election less than six weeks away, the findings suggest that California is all but locked down as one of the most solidly Democratic states in the race for the White House.
There you have it: a sixteen-point lead for Bush in Arizona means the state is “in play” for Kerry, while a fifteen-point lead for Kerry in California means the state is “all but locked down” for Kerry.
Heads Kerry wins, tails Bush loses.
P.S. Since I am reading this online the night before it appears on dead trees, I don’t know what prominence this story will get. (But — just between you and me — I wouldn’t be surprised to see it on the front page. I guess we’ll see tomorrow morning.)
P.P.S. Since the mainstream media is so very concerned with revealing the biases of bloggers, I thought I would take this opportunity to point out that the story is written by Michael Finnegan, the same guy who found Kerry’s famous failed photo-op with Marines at a New England Wendy’s to be beneath mention — and who failed to respond to my inquiries about it.
UPDATE 6-23-04 6:19 a.m.: The story is indeed on the front page. No surprise there. Funny how, in the front-page “Arizona is is play” story, the 16-point Bush lead was buried on page A20 — but in this story, Kerry’s 15-point lead in California is right there on the front page.
UPDATE x2: Commenter “keypusher” points out that Kerry has given up on Arizona:
Bowing to political realities, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has canceled plans to begin broadcasting television commercials in Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana and the perennial battleground of Missouri.
Still think Arizona is “in play,” L.A. Times?
UPDATE x3: Welcome to readers of the Wall Street Journal’s “Best of the Web,” and thanks to James Taranto for the link. If you have never visited before, please consider taking a look at my main page, and remember to bookmark it for future visits.
I rarely take tyhe side of the LA Slimes, but in this one instance I think you have it wrong. The Bush lead in Arizona is 16 points in one poll, only three in another. That certainly does put Arizona in play. This makes intuitive sense as well. Do we really believe Bush has any chance in California? No. Arizona has trended more liberal, so it really may be in play.
I confidently predict that the margin of victory will be substantially greater for kerry in CA than any Bush margin in AZ.
Comment by alert reader hank k — 9/22/2004 @ 11:10 pm
The facts on the ground when they wrote the Arizona story were that Bush led by 16 in the most recent poll — yet they buried that inconvenient fact on page A20, and called Arizona “in play” on the front page. The fact that earlier polls may have shown a closer race may be an interesting fact, but doesn’t excuse their decision to hide the most current results, which strongly favor Bush. If they’re going to call a 16-point lead “in play” for Kerry, then the whole damn country is “in play” for Bush, including California.
Comment by Patterico — 9/23/2004 @ 6:28 am
Tapped, Truth to Power and On Deck
I have a schedule full of meetings and spreadsheets, so more light posting today. In the meantime, go read Ace’s profanity-laced tirade on why Rathergate matters, and why the media insults your intelligence when they claim to have no ideological…
Trackback by INDC Journal — 9/23/2004 @ 6:56 am
Rooting for the L.A. Times to Grow Up
Why does the L.A. Times slant the news of pre-election polls in favor of John Kerry? That they do so is undeniable — Patterico has caught them:
Trackback by MediaCulpa — 9/23/2004 @ 8:46 am
Is the LA Times Still Taken Seriously on the Left Coast?
It was noted in the blogosphere last week when the LA Times insinuated that Arizona was in play with this headline: Long a Republican Bulwark, a Growing Arizona Is in Play Buried in the middle of the story were the actual numbers: A poll taken for the …
Trackback by MartiniPundit — 9/23/2004 @ 8:55 am
Just following up on this, note that the Kerry campaign just canceled plans to begin running TV ads in Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri and . . . Arizona. See http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040922/ap_on_el_pr/kerry_bowing_out&cid=694&ncid=2043
Guess they don’t read the LA Times.
Comment by keypusher — 9/23/2004 @ 8:59 am
The Garden State Growing a Brain
(I can say that because I live here.) From Ace:
48-48
The Kerry campaign insisted yesterday that it still considered New Jersey safe for the Democrats and had no plans to divert the candidates’ time or money from battleground states such as Pennsylv…
Trackback by Armies of Liberation — 9/23/2004 @ 9:31 am
Kerry Pulls Out of Arizona
According to the AZ Republic, Sen. John Kerry’s campaign scrapped plans for television advertising in the state Wednesday, prompting Republicans to declare “it’s over” for the Democratic candidate in Arizona.
Trackback by bLogicus — 9/23/2004 @ 9:50 am
The 10 Spot - Comeback Edition
Things you may have missed on the great big interweb…David Scott Anderson has an open letter to the President about our response to the beheadings in the Middle East. Ace answers the question, “shouldn’t we be talking about the real…
Trackback by Wizbang — 9/23/2004 @ 4:03 pm
Dateline NBC/60 Minutes 2
Byron York on TheHill.com retells the story of Dateline NBC’s fabrication of an attack on GM trucks and the similarities to Rathergate. The outcome will Hopefully be the same for both networks , with all persons involved in the lies being fired and d…
Trackback by Bob's Place — 9/23/2004 @ 7:19 pm
L.A. Times: fact-challenged, or just math-challenged?
Fellow Angeleno Patterico (who saw last week's story before I did) noted that, the Times touted Arizona as in play, yet buried the most recent poll data showing Bush leading Kerry there by 16 points on a back page near the end of the article. Yest…
Trackback by No Illusions — 9/24/2004 @ 2:27 am
Teresa Heinz screws up again
Kerry’s wife is NOT an asset
Trackback by The View From The Nest — 9/24/2004 @ 9:39 am
Patterico’s Post
. . . in which he compares the treatment of Arizona (WRT Bush) with that of California (WRT Kerry) in the L.A. Times coverage is fast becoming a classic; Taranto linked to it, and it was mentioned by Brit…
Trackback by Little Miss Attila — 9/25/2004 @ 11:36 pm
The link on my trackback entry to my “The View From The Nest” is wrong. It should point to
http://www.robinjuhl.homelinux.net/weblog/pivot/entry.php?id=240
That’s what I get for having the trackback URL set when I did a pre-publishing “preview.” My apologies to all those subjected to my son’s English homework….
Comment by Ranten.N.Raven — 9/27/2004 @ 11:49 am
Submitted for Your Approval
First off… any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here, and here. Die spambots, die! And now… here are all the links submitted by members of the Watcher’s Council for this week’s vote. Council links:Ever…
Trackback by Watcher of Weasels — 9/28/2004 @ 9:34 pm
Submitted for Your Approval
First off… any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here, and here. Die spambots, die! And now… here are all the links submitted by members of the Watcher’s Council for this week’s vote. Council links:Ever…
Trackback by Watcher of Weasels — 9/28/2004 @ 9:50 pm
Media Watch: 2004-10-12
CNSNews Iraq docs online; ABC News memo; Poynter Ethics lament; NYT’s differential rumour policies; More AP bias from Loven & Laidlaw; FOX’s Cameron in conflict?; FOXC’s post-debate “quotes”; NYT Unfit to Review; Spinning the polls; Spain vs. Australia…
Trackback by Winds of Change.NET — 10/11/2004 @ 10:32 pm
Cocooning with Team America
Inspired by an early movie review, I took the wife to a sneak preview of Team America: World Police. Overall, I liked the movie and would give it a B. As I expected, conservatives Trey Parker and Matt Stone produced not the Fahrenheit 9/11 clone some l…
Trackback by Gus Van Horn — 12/22/2004 @ 9:23 am