In the spirit of Ted “it turns my brains to mush” Koppel, syndicated columnist/commentator Mark Shields is embarrassing the nation’s press corps. Bob Somerby skewers Shields for a ridiculous misinterpretation of a Pew poll question:

Prepare to avert your gaze in shame as Shields completely misreports the results of this familiar type of question [on PBS’ Newshour]:

SHIELDS (3/24/06): What has happened—in Andy Kohut’s Pew poll, they asked a wonderful question: "What single word would you use to describe George Bush as you see him, how you feel about him?" And "honest" had been the top word, 38 percent, two out of five voters, basically. Then it fell to third, and “incompetent” was second—this was over the last year and a half actually, since January of 2005.

And now “incompetent” is number one, and “honest” has fallen all the way to sixth. Only 14 percent say “honest” is the word that comes to mind. This is a real problem for the president; in between are words like "idiot" to describe him. So the president’s effectiveness in communicating, there’s a sense that he’s locked in, that he’s locked in, in a way—that he’s locked into this policy.

“They asked a wonderful question,” Shields gushed. But good God! He then completely misreported the answers—in a way Pew specifically warns about. No, there never was a time when 38 percent of respondents said “honest” when asked for one word about Bush. The real facts? In February 2005 (Shields had the month wrong too), 38 respondents—out of 761—had used that word for Bush. That was five percent of respondents, not the 38 percent Shields reported. Shields completely misunderstood—and misreported—these basic data, in a manner so predictable that Pew specifically warns against it. That’s right! If a scribe bothers to check the Pew data, he’s handed the following warning:

PEW: Figures show the actual numbers of respondents who offered each response; these are NOT percentages.

The Pew folk even went to all caps, trying to stop this kind of bungling! But so what? This problem has persisted for years, as hapless pundits lazily put their Millionaire Values to work.