Features

On Monday, Oct. 1, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Matier & Ross reported selected results of the David Binder poll concerning Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums. 

The Binder poll got picked up the next day in the Chronicle’s news section, with political writer Carla Marinucci reporting that Dellums’ endorsement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for president “came as new polls show that his support may not carry the clout it once did. Little more than a year after his election, Oakland voters have become disenchanted with the mayor's leadership.” 

Also on Oct. 2, the Matier & Ross column poll results were quoted in the online version of the National Review, which said that “some days, the left hand of the press doesn't quite keep track of what the other left hand is saying” after noting that the Chronicle was reporting that Dellums’ popularity was dropping while the Associated Press was simultaneously reporting that Dellums is a “widely respected black leader,”  

On Oct. 3, Off The Bus political blogger Mayhill Flower, writing in the Huffington Post about the Dellums endorsement of Clinton, said that Dellums’ “popularity as Oakland mayor has been declining,” linking the statement back to the Matier & Ross column. 

Two days later, the poll reference was picked up in a KQED Television online blurb announcing its “This Week In Northern California” program. Referring to a segment titled “Dellums Endorses Clinton as Poll Numbers Drop,” the blurb says that Ron Dellums' popularity in Oakland has dropped since he was elected to City Hall, and refers back to the Oct. 2 Marinucci story in the Chronicle as one of its sources. 

None of the news organizations or blogs that referred to the Binder poll following the original Matier & Ross story gave any indication that its reporters or bloggers had seen the original Binder polling data.