I was asked about the latest Newsweek poll on Fox over the weekend, and I was kind of stunned to hear someone bring it up seriously. I think Andrew Malcolm’s take is closer to right:

However, a new Newsweek poll finds great hope for Democrats to avoid a “Midterm Bloodbath” because Obama’s approval rating has only dropped one more point and, according to Newsweek’s survey, 47% approve of the Democrat’s job while only 45% disapprove. Also, in the last 16 months disapproval of Obama’s successful growing of the federal deficit has only jumped 13 points from 45% to 58% now.
So it all comes down to which poll do you believe: the one by the troubled weekly magazine that was just sold for $1 to a 92-year-old businessman who’s married to a Democratic congresswoman? Or the one by the 75-year-old, highly-respected professional polling organization?

But even this misses the mark because Newsweek’s polls have been awful for more than a decade. I’m not saying they’ve never been accurate, at least by accident. But I can’t think of a single major news organization that has more reliably released polls that both deviated from other (more) reputable polls and just happened to buttress the magazine’s editorial outlook. Remember Brit Hume’s jab back in 2000:

[B]y the way, with regard to the Newsweek poll, I think we now are beginning to know why The Washington Post, which owns Newsweek, does its polling with “ABC NEWS” and leaves Newsweek to do its — I think if Newsweek took a poll of the Bush family, Gore would win.

If I was a Democratic officeholder and my political consultant came in trying to buck up my spirits by citing a pro-Obama Newsweek poll, I’d be about as upbeat as the warden at the end of Shawshank Redemption.