When is a 47%-44% polling result "a big lead" and when is it "almost dead even?" According to MSNBC, it depends on who's leading.

I was just watching MSNBC when the anchor-lady pointed to a poll with a +/- 3 point margin of error that asked people whom they trusted to better undertand their needs/situation. The results were 47%-44%, in favor of John Kerry. The anchor-lady expressed great shock and incredulity when she mentioned a recent Time magazine poll that shows an 11-point Bush lead, and asked a colleague on-air "doesn't that 11-point lead seem strange to you, seeing as how so many more Americans trust John Kerry..."

So many more, huh? 3%? In a poll with a 3 point margin of error. OK, I thought, so the lady doesn't understand "margin of error...." I'm forgiving like that - after all, I thought, "she's a newscaster; how bright can she be?"

But then, in the very next breath, less than a minute later, the exact same lady pointed to another poll that asked which candidate they trusted more with (i think it was national security? i don't recall.) The results of THAT poll, also with a +/-3 point margin of error, were 50% Bush and 46% Kerry - and she called it "A VIRTUAL DEAD HEAT!"

So, according to MSNBC, when Kerry leads by 3 points (within the margin of error) he is far ahead, and when President Bush leads by 4 points it's a "virtual dead heat."

And who said the media was biased?