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.

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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.


Except the numbers were exactly the opposite. Who knows if Fox deliberately distorted the numbers or they simply could not imagine a scenario in which their side was getting trounced so badly in public opinion and thought they were "correcting" a mistake in the poll. Either way, as far as connection to reality is concerned, it shows they have about as much interest in what's actually going on in Wisconsin as if they had put up a scoreboard showing the Steelers had won the Superbowl and then praised them for winning their third Lombardi trophy since 2005.


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To his credit, F&F’s Brian Kilmeade issued a correction about 40 minutes later, after they had realized their mistake: “I want to correct a poll we did about 22 minutes ago from Gallup,” he said. “61% oppose taking collective bargaining away from those people in Wisconsin. 33% in favor. I had it reversed. I apologize.”

Along with the correction, the network aired another graphic, with the correct numbers.