Politico is raising eyebrows with a survey of reporters that allows them to anonymously grade spokesman Sean Spicer as “pathetic” and President Trump “the most openly anti-press president in U.S. history.”
What’s more, the “Covering President Trump” survey encourages reporters to suggest on the record which Trump staffer Saturday Night Live should parody next “and who should play the part?”
Results are to be published in a print issue on the media around the time of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday. In last year’s issue, 86 percent of media members said they expected Hillary Clinton to win the presidency.
The news site expanded its annual survey audience beyond regular White House correspondents, “because the White House expanded the briefings to a larger group,” said a spokesman.
Results from last year’s survey of reporters.
In a note explaining the survey, Politico said, “As part of Politico Magazine‘s annual Media Issue, we are surveying the White House press corps for the fourth year in a row—this time in the context of a new president who gets unparalleled media attention yet has publicly attacked the press many times over since taking office.”
Politico‘s media surveys have in the past used edgy language and a spokesman called them “informal, voluntary survey of reporters who cover the White House on a day-to-day basis.” Last year, for example, it asked reporters if the idea of covering a Hillary Clinton White House “fills me with dread” or “excites me.”
While anonymity is promised for most of the questions, the outlet publishes the names of those who participate.
Some of the words in this year’s poll are drawing complaints from some reporters and the White House. Others scoffed and said the survey is fun and like the way the Politico presents it as a graphic.
“I actually see a lot of myself in you…” #SNL pic.twitter.com/D3Zkt2bRpm
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) April 9, 2017
The bulk of questions in the current poll fall under an anonymous section.
“On a scale from 1 (pathetic) to 10 (flawless), how would you rate Sean Spicer’s performance as press secretary so far?” asked question No. 14.
The follow up: “How long do you predict Spicer will stay on as press secretary? He’ll be replaced this year. He’ll make it into 2018. He’ll serve the full first term.”
In the 2014 survey, it used the word “lame” in a question about Obama spokesman Jay Carney. In 2016, it asked, reporters to rank President Obama’s promise to be the most transparent White House, on a 1-10 scale, from “bogus” to “accurate.”
Part of the focus is on Trump’s media attacks. “True or false: Trump is the most openly anti-press president in U.S. history,” asks question No. 19.
But it also gives reporters a chance to whack their own business, asking in one question, “On a scale from 1 (hopelessly) to 10 (perfectly), how well do you think the press is covering Trump’s presidency overall?”
Pollster John Zogby hit the survey. “At first I thought the survey was fine. Then beginning with Question 20 and the section ‘Trump vs the Press,’ I think it is silly and gratuitously hostile. It is clearly adversarial, otherwise the section would read ‘Trump AND the Press.’ Also, while it does mention ‘previous administrations,’ it really lacks context and just continues a pattern of hostility that does not serve the profession of journalism well,” he said.
Politico‘s spokesman however said “it seems ridiculous to compare an informal, voluntary survey of reporters who cover the White House on a day-to-day basis about their experiences to a scientific voter poll.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
Politico Mag Wh Survey 2017 by mglennonexaminer on Scribd
