A remarkable bi-partisan group of campaign pollsters released an open letter this afternoon that assailed the "sometimes uncritical media coverage" of the "proliferation" of public pre-election polls that fail to disclose basic information about how they are conducted and that "have the capacity to shape media and donor reactions to election contests." Full Story »
Posted by Dwight Rousu
An article about a bipartisan group of leading pollsters proposing standards for political polls. The group not only wants to set standards, but also calls upon the media to objectively judge the accuracy of polls before splashing results all over the place. Their proposal for accurate and fair standards is based on the reality that many “polls” are actually manufactured to support a distorted concept or talking point with the intention of influencing contributions and discouraging voters from voting–since the poll’s “results” prove outcomes are already a foregone conclusion.
The article contains excellent advice about how to determine whether we’re confronted with facts or biased opinions posing as “facts”–the latter being what's mostly in media right now. Look for sources, the kind of sources, background for the article, the quality of links and quotes, who’s making the quotes or providing background, and if the assertions agree with what you know to be accurate. Far too many people fall for what sociology calls “status conferral”. That is, since the “information” has been reported by the media, it must not only be important, but factual. This had a lot to do with voting behavior by the over-the-hill white-folk crowd in the recent election, scared by the right-wing Bogeyman machine.