MSNBC Pulls a Trick From the Fox News Playbook [Errors]

because we thought it showed Brewer misreading the poll data as showing a drop in approval of the congressional GOP from 13% to 9% when in fact, according to the on-screen graphic, it showed the reverse—a four-point rise. But it turns out the graphic is wrong—there was a four-point drop relating to Congress, the GOP, and approval. But it's not, as Brewer says, that just 9% of the public approve of the GOP in Congress. It's that 9% of Republicans approve of Congress, down from 13% of Republicans last month.

Big difference. Especially when, according to Gallup, Republicans and Democrats are virtually tied on the "generic ballot" vote for which party people intend to vote for in their congressional elections, with Republicans gaining two percentage points and Democrats dropping six since July.

As you can see, Brewer made the same mistake with the Democratic numbers, misreporting an 18-point drop in Democrats' approval of Congress as an 18-point drop in the public's approval of Democrats in Congress. But you can hear in her voice how happy it makes her to say that Republican approval "slipped into the single digits," and she probably wishes it were true just as much as Fox News producers wished Mark Foley and Mark Sanford were Democrats.

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