The Public Weighs In On Media Coverage of Iraq

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: CBS News Issues

One of the questions in the new CBS Poll (pdf) dealt with how Americans feel about the way the media describe the situation in Iraq. The poll found that 24% of respondents felt the media were "making things in Iraq sound better than they really are," 31% felt the media were making things sound "worse than they really are," and 35% felt the media were "describing the situation in Iraq accurately." (10% did not give an answer.)

It's been interesting to watch how partisans on both sides interpret these results. Over at conservative Newsbusters, Brent Baker complained that the "Evening News," in discussing the poll, ignored the news that roughly a third of respondents said the media were describing the situation as worse than it actually is, presumably because of CBS' liberal bias.

At the liberal Think Progress, meanwhile, Judd Legum saw the results as evidence that the "Public Rejects Right-Wing Narrative On Media Coverage Of Iraq," as the hedline put it. "A new CBS poll shows that about 60% of Americans believe that the media is reporting things in Iraq either accurately or better than they really are," writes Legum.

To better understand these results, it's worth looking at the party breakdown of the responses. Among Republicans, perhaps unsurprisingly, only 8% thought the media were making things in Iraq sound better than they really are, whereas 57% thought the media were making things sound worse than they really are. 30% of Democrats, meanwhile, thought the media were making things sound better than they really are, and only 14% thought they were making things sound worse than they really are. (Democrats, incidentally, seem to have the most faith in the media, with 43% saying that the media were describing the situation in Iraq accurately. Only 30% of Republicans said the same.)

Now consider how people responded to the previous question, which asks respondents if they think George W. Bush, when he talks about how things are going for the United States in Iraq, is making things sound better than they are, worse than they are, or if he's describing the situation accurately. The key finding? 43% of Republicans think the president is making things in Iraq sound better than they actually are. That figure isn't quite as high as the percentage of Republicans who think the media is making things look worse than they are, but it's still quite high. That seems to suggest that while many Republicans don't totally trust what the media reports, they don't totally trust what the president says, either, and thus presumably conceive of the reality in Iraq as somewhere between the portrait painted by the press and the one painted by the president.

One more point to consider: while 26% of independents think the press is making things look worse than they are, a whopping 71% think the president is putting a happy face on the situation. The press' credibility may be relatively low among independents – only 31 percent said the media describe the situation in Iraq accurately – but it's better, at the moment, than that of the president when it comes to the war. (If you want to look at these results yourself, click here for the poll and scroll down to questions 46 and 47. And for those of you curious about weighting issues in CBS News polls, see our previous post on that topic.)

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by jtdavies3 March 15, 2006 4:32 AM EST: Are you saying that you are proud that the media is as trusted as a politician? Pretty low bar. How does the media compare to trial lawyers for truthfulness?; Reply to this comment


by bill_w1-2009 March 15, 2006 3:32 AM EST: How in the world does it make sense to poll the American people about how the accurately the media is reporting things from Iraq, since most have not been there? How would they know if it is reported fairly? It would be more informative if you polled those of us who have been there working or serving in the military. I guarantee you would get 80-90% saying that it is inaccurately reported. Most, like me, were completely blown away with how screwed up the media coverage has been, how slanted it has been, and the biggest error of omission is the context. Even in the worst months while I was there, most of the country was pretty quiet, and even while in Baghdad and other hotspots - I rarely saw any of the violence that was being reported. It was cherrypicked from the massive amount of normalness. I am not saying that what they reported did not happen; I lost some friends and colleagues to the violence and spent some tense times there. However, putting it in context of the overall picture of Iraq would change people's views here about what is happening.; Reply to this comment


by foobarbaz-2009 March 15, 2006 1:28 AM EST: OK, let's assume we're in the 1940's. Thousands of Americans were just killed at Pearl Harbor. Now, some rogue News Org. (CBS)publishes this: More U.S. Troops Moving Into Iraq CBS News has learned a battalion of about 700 standby soldiers in Kuwait are moving north toward Baghdad ahead of the anniversary of the U.S. invasion. Can you tell how CBS is not committing treason?; Reply to this comment


by peterbaldwin-2009 March 14, 2006 10:37 PM EST: Post-embed reporting has turned almost 180 degrees to reflect reality on the ground in Iraq. Just read a little bit of what the Times was reporting during and after the Fallujah debacle versus al-Jazeera and compare it to what is being reported now versus al-Jazeera.; Reply to this comment