Great moments in punditry, David Gergen edition
Every time I watch CNN, I remember how dumb pundits can be, and why I avoid watching CNN. Consider conservative commentator David Gergen. Earlier this evening, he was confused about whether Obama or McCain is currently winning. After all, one polling agency, Gallup, had released two polls with conflicting results.
Maybe if David Gergen were paid money to be a political expert, he could have found five minutes of spare time to look at all the polls taken this month, available at Pollster.com:
| Obama ahead | Tie | McCain ahead |
|---|---|---|
| Gallup 7/27 | Rasmussen 7/16 | USA Today/Gallup 7/27 |
| Rasmussen 7/25 | ||
| Economist/YouGov 7/24 | ||
| Gallup 7/24 | ||
| Democracy Corps 7/24 | ||
| FOX 7/23 | ||
| Rasmussen 7/22 | ||
| Gallup 7/21 | ||
| NBC/WSJ 7/21 | ||
| Rasmussen 7/19 | ||
| Gallup 7/18 | ||
| Economist/YouGov 7/17 | ||
| Rasmussen 7/16 | ||
| Gallup 7/15 | ||
| CBS/Times 7/14 | ||
| Rasmussen 7/13 | ||
| ABC/Post 7/13 | ||
| Zogby/Reuters 7/13 | ||
| Quinnipiac 7/13 | ||
| Gallup 7/12 | ||
| IBD/TIPP 7/11 | ||
| Newsweek 7/10 | ||
| Rasmussen 7/10 | ||
| Gallup 7/9 | ||
| Economist/YouGov 7/9 | ||
| Rasmussen 7/7 | ||
| Gallup 7/6 | ||
| Economist/YouGov 7/2 | ||
| Gallup 7/2 | ||
| Rasmussen 7/1 |
Ah, but of course David Gergen does get plenty of money from CNN, which thrives on excited reporting on close races. And, to quote Paul Krugman quoting Upton Sinclair today, it's hard to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it. I'd expect CNN to continue its pattern of selecting its own facts in order to report on a close race from now until election day.
[Edited to add...] Adam C of Redstate is clearly experiencing some wishful thinking, but is still smart enough to understand that poll averaging is an easy and useful thing to do. Why oh why can't CNN have better conservative pundits?
Labels: CNN, david gergen, entitled to his own facts, pundits
posted by Benjamin Schak at 10:53 PM
3 Comments:
You are unique in considering Gergen to be a conservative. Among other employers in his long career was one Billl Clinton. At best Gergen is a right-leaning moderate.
I am not unique in considering Gergen a conservative. At the very least, Wikipedia describes him as a conservative counterweight to Mark Shields on the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour. He's certainly not an extreme conservative or a diehard Republican, but I think it's fair to call him a moderate conservative.
I'm well aware that Gergen was briefly a Clinton adviser. And that he was a Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Bush (Sr.) adviser or staffer for a much longer aggregate period of time. Even while working for Clinton, he described himself as an "independent" who was "moderately right of center."
Hmmm...none of the GOP Presidents Gergen worked for was a conservative himself, other than Reagan.
And it's hardly surprising that PBS would hire a "conservative counterweight" who's no conservative.
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