Monday, April 13, 2015

Fox flips poll results to falsely claim Americans support union-busting

Earlier this morning, Fox broadcast the results of a USA Today/Gallup poll on whether Americans believe their states should take away collective bargaining rights for public sector unions.
USA Today Gallup Poll
As you can see from the chart on the right, the poll showed that the overwhelming majority of Americans oppose union-busting, with 61% against taking away collective bargaining rights and only 33% in favor.

But that's not what Fox told their audience. In fact, Fox claimed the poll showed Americans supported union-busting. To accomplish this, they simply reversed the numbers. As you can see in the screenshot at the top of the post, they claimed 61% supported taking away collective bargaining rights and just 33% supported it. That, of course, is a mirror image of the truth.

This wasn't just some simple Chyron slip, an example of fat-fingering on a live broadcast. Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade also used the fake numbers as evidence to take the side of union-busters, claiming most Americans sided with Walker's position, not against him.  READ MORE

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