Accuracy in Media

BuzzFeed ran a biased article supporting Democratic presidential candidate Deval Patrick in a piece headlined, “Deval Patrick Said His Record Of Fixing Problems Other Candidates Only ‘Have Plans For’ Is Resonating In New Hampshire.”

BuzzFeed reporter Darren Sands didn’t provide any numerical context or analysis around Patrick’s claim, for example, RealClearPolitics reporting showing that Patrick was dead last among Democratic candidates in New Hampshire — barely registering at 0.3 percent in their polling compilation average.

“‘A lot of the stuff that voters say they’re interested in, and that candidates have plans for, I’ve already done. So for me it’s not about having a plan or ambition — it’s about having results. In New Hampshire, folks know what I’m talking about. Those proof points are familiar to them and people are open to it,’ Patrick told BuzzFeed News in an interview in Washington, D.C. ‘It is something I bring to the race that the other very capable candidates don’t.”

Yet despite Patrick’s knock on other candidates, BuzzFeed’s Sands also failed to mention that Patrick was also polling dead last nationally among Democrats, fairing slightly better than in New Hampshire with 0.8 percent of the polling compilation average.

“Patrick has said that he doesn’t see any part of his campaign’s approach or its message as a ‘critique’ of other candidates,” BuzzFeed continued. “But his jab at the use of strictly policy proposals as the foundation for a pitch to primary voters is evidence of how he plans to use his record as governor to persuade voters. And it shows a strategy, especially in New Hampshire — which shares a border and media market with Massachusetts, where Patrick served as governor for eight years — for Patrick to dislodge the candidate many will see as the nameless target of his dismissal of ‘plans’: Elizabeth Warren.”

Yet in New Hampshire, BuzzFeed doesn’t even mention Pete Buttigieg, the candidate, not Warren (who is third behind Sen. Bernie Sanders), who is topping the Democratic pack in New Hampshire, per RealClearPolitics.