Posted by
Glenn Flowers on Monday, June 30, 2008 3:16:38 PM
Ever notice how often the main stream media publish the results of a poll as proof of some assertion they’ve made? Ever think that, just maybe, the MSM has created the poll to create news that supports their claims?
Polls are only surveys of people’s opinions or actions. They are not scientific in anyway, are definitely not authoritative, and are, by reputation, not particularly accurate. But it never fails that a news release cites a poll’s results as support for some precept.
Then there is that "margin of error" that is a variable intended to be employed when the results are near equal and can, with a few fractions of a point or two more or less, be made to support that which it actually condemns, even if slightly.
Political campaigns, especially those of the democratic persuasion, create and use polls to their exclusive benefit also. The campaign for the democratic nomination for president by the female Senator from New York, used tactical polling to insure that the candidate was aware of the issues important to the voters in the areas she was to visit. Weeks before the planned visit by the candidate, polling groups were sent ahead to survey the population as to their concerns, wishes, and hopes in the election. When a substantial number of replies had been collected, they would return to the campaign headquarters and brief the candidate on these results, and her talking points for her speeches to those in that area were adjusted, changed outright, and even new positions created in order to allow the candidate to promise everyone everything they want in every town to be visited. Ahhh, the sweet belief in polls. Ain’t it great?
Then there are the poll bouncers. Those groups who are organized to either answer the poll questions in an effort to skew the results, or to intimidate the pollsters into packing up and quitting. What a great country that allows dissent in such a way. Intimidation, fraud, and collusion are the tools of the liberal campaign trade.
The best, most accurate polling method I’ve ever seen is used exclusively by Frank Luntz. You know, the one where an audience turns a knob to indicate approval or disapproval while listening to a recording or video. There is no opportunity to manipulate, and no margin for error. The results are an accurate, immediate portrayal of the respondents feelings on what they are seeing or hearing, or both.
As a critical, conservative thinker, take any poll with a shovel of salt, except the Luntz fella. Besides, his method always shows that conservatives rule. Or almost always anyway.
Glenn Flowers