What kind of fiasco is this?
In the weeks since Donald Trump’s felony conviction, President Joe Biden has pulled slightly ahead in one poll after another. In swing states and on a national level, it’s clear that persuadable voters in the middle are now moving away from Trump and toward Biden. It’s still too early to take the polls seriously. But if you’re going to talk about the polls right now, it’s good news for Biden. Except wait a minute.
The New York Times has suddenly released a poll that claims Trump is firmly ahead. This poll makes no sense whatsoever, given that the other polls have Biden pulling ahead. Not only is this poll a bunch of horse crap, the timing is also way too convenient. With Trump fading badly heading into the debate, now the media can use this wacky new poll to claim that it’s actually Biden who’s in trouble, so everybody had better watch in a panic!
This comes just days after the New York Times ran a headline claiming that Trump is now massively out-fundraising Biden, only to admit in the fine print that it was based solely on unsupported fundraising claims by Trump’s people, not the FEC.
There’s something obviously very, very wrong with the New York Times, as it delves into an almost National Enquirer level of BS aimed at stirring up page views. At this point we’d probably be better off if the New York Times were shut down. But that’s just the start of the problem.
Now that the New York Times has released this fake poll that claims the precise opposite of what the other polls say, various major news outlets will frame their debate coverage around this fake poll. The fact that Biden is ahead in the other polls? That part will be conveniently ignored.
This serves as the latest reminder that the media’s prevailing political narratives are usually straight up fiction aimed at stirring up ratings. They’re going with the narrative that Biden is on his last legs and has to pull off a miracle during the debate. But back in the real world, it’s Trump whose poll numbers are collapsing and now has to try to win a debate while in the midst of full blown dementia.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report