Introduction
On May 2, ABC News's Twitter account made a tweet on their latest poll on Americans' opinions towards Joe Biden. The tweet read as follows:
You may notice at the bottom that the organization's tweet go ratio'ed with 1.9K quotes to 2.1K likes as of me writing this. The vast majority of the replies ridicule ABC News, criticizing it for deceptive wording. One even went as far as to call it "Pravda level spin".
So what is exactly wrong with ABC News's tweet?
Common Tricks the Media Uses
Two common methods media outlets use to nudge their audience towards a certain position are spin and slant. The now-defunct The Knife Media defines both of these terminologies rather aptly:
- Spin — “Spin makes language vague, dramatic or sensational — it’s anything that strays from objective, measurable facts. It opens the door to bias and keeps us from a precise understanding of what happened.”
- Slant — “Slant is when you’re told only part of the story, with cherry-picked information that supports a particular viewpoint. This makes the news unbalanced, and keeps our understanding limited and narrow.”
Good examples of spin include dramatic verbs, adverbs, and adjectives media outlets use in their headlines to spice up the story like "So-and-so Rages at Organization X in a Fiery Speech". It definitely will grab a person's attention, but "rages" and "fiery" are used in an interpretive manner.
As for slant, it's pretty self-explanatory. A good example of a slant is if a news outlet exclusively invites people that supports a particular side of an issue and not invite someone with an opposing opinion. CNN is definitely guilty of this when Technical Director Charlie Chester admitted that they would only invite people who have a track record of taking the bait.
What Did ABC Do Wrong?
Technically, ABC News didn't say anything that is false. After all, the organization is referencing its own poll. So ABC News isn't lying, so they didn't do anything wrong, right? As you may have guessed from the title, its tweet contains an obvious slant.
In the actual article, ABC News gives a more comprehensive overlook on the numbers. However, the way it advertised it on Twitter only references statistics that favor Biden: "23% of Americans think the country has become more united" and "Among this group, an overwhelming 87% give Biden credit". 23% is quite a low percentage, so ABC News decided to make it sound better by accompanying it with a big number, 87%. And it's not just any 87%, it's an overwhelming 87%. That's a fine example of spin.
What is honestly baffling is how ABC News thought it would be a good idea to market its poll this way. If you do the math, 87% of the 23% is 20%. That means 1 in 5 Americans think Biden is responsible for making the country more united. This also means the other 80% of Americans don't think Biden has made the country more united.
If you want the fuller context, 28% of Americans think the country is more divided, with 60% of the group blaming Biden, 34% blaming both him and Republicans, and 6% blaming solely on Republicans. Mathematically, 16.8% of Americans blame Biden, 9.52% of Americans blame him and Republicans, and 1.38% of Americans blame Republicans for making the country more divided.
Lastly, 48% of Americans thinks the country is neither more united nor more divided.
Closing Thoughts
If I were ABC News I would've tweeted "23% of Americans think the country is more united with 28% thinking the country more divided and 48% being neutral". This shows the full context and does not favor one side or the other. The hypothetical tweet also doesn't contain any flowery language to dramatize or sensationalize the numbers.
But of course, that would be too boring, wouldn't it? After all, you gotta tickle the audience's balls to get them clicks, am I right?
