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December 5, 2004
'Moral Values' Theory of Election Discredited in WaPo Article
Journalism 101 professors should require their students to read an excellent article in the Sunday Washington Post, "The Anatomy of Myth: How did one exit poll answer become the story of how Bush won?". The author, Dick Meyer, editorial director of CBSNews.com, shreds the argument that concern about declining 'moral values' was the pivotal determinant of the 2004 presidential election. Meyer notes that responses to "a single dodgy exit poll question" ranking 'moral values' as the most important priority for 22% of exit poll respondents over economy/jobs (20%), terrorism (19%) and Iraq (15%) became the basis for a media bandwagon based on lazy reporting and thin suppositions about the meaning of the term.
Meyer likens the term to a "Rorschach test" holding a multitude of meanings for different people, "not a discrete, clear political issue to be set next to taxes or terrorism." Reporters seized on the exit poll responses to the catch-all question as proof that voters were reacting to same-sex marriage, late-term abortion and other cultural concerns of the religious right. Yet to many voters, moral issues include the war in Iraq, personal integrity of the candidates, patriotism or helping the poor. Had the term "moral values" been broken down into such categories in the poll, or had terrorism and Iraq been combined, the ranking would likely have been quite different. As Meyer concludes "the moral values doctrine has morphed from a simple poll finding to a grand explanatory theory to gospel truth. This contaminated strain of punditry needs to be eradicated before it spreads further."
Posted by EDM staff at 09:00 PM | link
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