Bush Tax Flip Closely Watched, Poll Says : Media: Times Mirror’s survey of public reaction to news also finds that his policy reversal did not affect approval of how the President does his job.

Americans paid more attention to President Bush repudiating his campaign promise not to raise taxes than they have to most of what he has done as President, but it is not clear that this reversal is affecting his popularity, according to a new survey.

Seven in ten Americans were aware that Bush had changed his mind on taxes and three in ten said that they paid “very close” attention to news accounts of it, according to the Times Mirror News Interest Index, a monthly survey of public reaction to the news.

In the last year, only Bush’s first prime-time presidential address last August, announcing his plan to combat drugs, attracted greater attention.

Yet the survey found that public approval of the way the President does his job remained at 64%, statistically the same level the Times Mirror survey measured in late May and early June.

A Gallup survey of the President’s popularity this week suggests that his approval rating has been dropping gradually for six months, from nearly 80% in January to 63% currently. The Gallup research suggests that many factors explain this, but it did note that 54% of Americans disapproved of his breaking his “read my lips” promise against new taxation, while 41% approved. Still, he remains as popular as most modern presidents at similar points in their terms.

The Times Mirror survey suggests that if his change of mind on taxes is not a major factor in his approval rating so far, part of the explanation might be the fact that while Americans find the President’s flip-flop interesting, they didn’t find it significant. Only 2%, for instance, considered Bush’s tax policy the most important news event of the month.

Several less-followed stories were considered more important than Bush’s tax reversal, including the U.S. visit of black South African leader Nelson Mandela, ranked as most important by 12%; changes in the Soviet Union (9%); events in Eastern Europe (8%) and the Iranian earthquake (8%).

The survey, in which 1,231 adults were interviewed by telephone July 5 to 8, was sponsored by Times Mirror, owner of the Los Angeles Times and other newspaper, magazine, broadcasting and publishing enterprises. The results have a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points and are subject to possible bias from the wording of questions.

The fires that raged across Southern California attracted almost as much “very close” attention (29%) as Bush (30%). This is consistent with earlier findings that natural disasters are among the most compelling news stories.

The fires also attracted more attention than Mandela’s visit (24%). In addition, one in four Americans said that there was “too much” media coverage of Mandela.

Yet Donald Trump retained the title as the news maker with whom the media were more obsessed than the public. Trump’s financial woes were very closely followed by just 16% of Americans, and nearly 30% volunteered that the self-promoting real estate developer got too much media attention.

But more people found Trump’s financial travails more absorbing than his much-publicized marital problems. The latter attracted the close attention of just 12% of Americans and was characterized as over-covered in the media by 55% of Americans.

Washington Mayor Marion Barry’s legal problems also are starting to lose the interest of Americans, perhaps because the element of surprise is gone. In the current survey, 22% reported very closely following Barry’s trial, down from 30% who were fascinated by his arrest in February. As with Mandela’s visit, blacks paid closer attention (40%) to the Barry trial than whites (20%).

Nonetheless, the FBI hidden-camera video of Barry’s arrest was popular. Roughly 60% reported seeing some or all of the tape, which was aired repeatedly by the media within minutes of its being shown in court.

Viewing the tape had mixed effects on public opinion. Most people (52%) said that their sympathies toward Barry were unchanged after watching it, while 33% said that they became less sympathetic. Only 13% said that they felt more sympathy toward Barry afterward.

The story that commanded the least public interest in June, however, was the international AIDS conference in San Francisco. Only 9% reported paying very close attention.

That came despite the efforts of the media, according to monitoring by Times Mirror’s Center for People & The Press, which supervises these studies. The AIDS conference, the center found, received more air time on network evening news in June than any other story, save Mandela.