While CBS's Early Show and the New York Times both highlighted their own poll showing support for further spending cuts, the CBS Evening News ignored it. Americans three-to-one believe the spending cuts in the debt ceiling deal were too small rather than too big, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll.
As BiasAlert reported [1], Thursday's CBS Evening News ignored the support for cuts while reporting increased disapproval of the Tea Party and support for tax increases. "The Tea Party fares poorly in the poll," declared CBS's Chip Reid.
[Video below.]
However, CBS's Early Show reported the support for spending cuts on Friday, as well as did the New York Times. "All of that debate about the need to cut spending over the past few months has made an impression," CBS's Bill Plante remarked on Friday's Early Show. "44 percent sais the cuts didn't go far enough."
The New York Times reported that "There were signs that the repeated Republican calls for more spending cuts were resonating with the public: 44 percent of those polled said the cuts in the debt-ceiling agreement did not go far enough, 29 percent said they were about right and only 15 percent said they went too far."
A partial transcript of the Early Show segment, which aired on August 5 at 7:04 a.m. EDT, is as follows:
ERICA HILL: We also want to get you this other piece of the puzzle, the latest CBS News/New York Times poll which shows just how upset Americans are with their leaders and with the state of the economy.
(...)
BILL PLANTE, CBS News senior White House correspondent: All of that debate about the need to cut spending over the past few months has made an impression. 44 percent said the cuts didn't go far enough. But at the same time, almost two-thirds of those surveyed said that creating jobs is more important than cutting government spending.
- Matt Hadro is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center