As this presidential election heads into the final two weeks and Trump’s campaign continues to freefall into a dark hole of sludge , CNN appears to be doing its best to make this thing a horse race.
Just tonight, Wolf Blitzer spent his time focused on two polls: A new Bloomberg Politics poll that finds Trump ahead of Clinton, 45% to 43%, in Florida; and the just-released national poll from Fox News showing it a 3-point race. “The race is tightening!” Blitzer breathlessly announced, then went on to quiz his guests about how worried the Clinton campaign must be!
No mention of the Associated Press national poll out today with Hillary up 14 points.
No mention of the USA Today national poll out today showing Hillary up 10.
Not even a mention of the ABC national tracking poll showing her up 9.
And no mention of the Survey USA and Atlantic Monthly polls showing Hillary leading Florida by 3 points. Because, well, that would not fit the narrative that Trump is surging in the Sunshine State.
For reasons only CNN knows, they are choosing to hype their rival network’s poll — even trotting out the overused BREAKING NEWS! banner. Frustratingly, none of Blitzer’s guests bothered to challenge him on this. They ALL collectively nodded their heads and agreed that, yes, these two candidates are neck in neck headed to the wire. Even the pudgy guy who is supposed to be an expert at poll data just kinda stood there. Gloria Borger chimed in by making up some puzzling claim than aggregate polling shows Clinton’s lead is somewhere “between two and four points.” Say what? No, Gloria, even CNN’s Poll of Polls has her up 6 points.
If that weren’t enough, as the hour changed Erin Burnett picked up where her pal Wolf left off. BREAKING NEWS! “Trump Cuts Clinton’s Lead in Half!” Again trumpeting the Fox News poll.
Again ...
No mention of the Associated Press poll out today with Hillary up 14 points.
No mention of the Suffolk/USA Today poll out today showing Hillary up 10.
No mention of anything, in fact, that would distract from the idea that the race is virtually tied.
What gives?
Either CNN is just oblivious, or they are purposefully cherry-picking polls to maintain the charade that this thing is a nail-biter. Worse, they’ve folded to Trump and his surrogates’ whining about the rigged media and are bending over backwards in their efforts to appease.
Whatever it is, it’s stupid and wrong.