17 December, 2007

Lingering bias -- death by a thousand cuts?

It's hard not to see when you're attuned (some might say hypersensitive) to it.

A fresh example: would you know that Ron Paul polled the same as Mitt Romney in the latest Quinnipiac poll in New York from looking at RealClearPolitics here or here? But, he did:

"...and 5 percent each for Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Congressman Ron Paul, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today." [12/17/07]

(It's also worth noting that Paul's 5% is up from 1% in October, whereas Romney's is down from 7%.)

Yet how many other sites and news anchors will cite RealClearPolitics and, like them, leave out Ron Paul's tie with a "top tier" candidate (albeit near the bottom of the crowd, but above Tancredo and Duncan)? What is the cumulative effect of a thousand such slights?

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