Some Media Portrayals of Tea Party Supporters Don’t Hold Up

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Reading the Tea Leaves

The portrayal by some in the media of Tea Party supporters as uneducated and unsuccessful doesn't hold up in a new study.

A New York Times/CBS survey finds Tea Party backers are more educated than the general population. The percentage who attended college is five points higher, eight for graduates and four for post-graduate students.

Supporters are almost as likely as the general public to say their personal financial situation is very good, and more likely to say it is fairly good. And Tea Partiers are more likely to have household incomes in the higher brackets than the average family.

Penalty Shot

Speaking of numbers, Britain's leading statistician is the latest to dismiss the so-called "hockey stick" graph used by global warming believers.

The Financial Times reports Professor David Hand says the graph used to represent the recent rise in global temperatures was compiled using inappropriate methods: "It used a particular statistical technique that exaggerated the effect [of recent warming.]"

Hand's findings are part of a report commissioned by the University of East Anglia, with advice from the royal statistical society into the Climategate e-mail scandal. The report exonerates the climate unit's scientists of any deliberate scientific malpractice. Hand says errors in the hockey stick graph, as well as the U.N. report that predicted Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035, were isolated incidents.

Carrot Appraoch

And finally, New York's carriage horses are getting a significant increase in work benefits. The city council has just passed new rules requiring larger stalls, blankets, and five weeks of vacation per year.

Animal welfare advocates have long wanted to shut down the Central Park carriage horse industry. But supporters argue it's important for tourism and that the horses are treated well. Now, they'll get city-mandated time off.

— Fox News Channel's Lanna Britt contributed to this report.