The Poll Says….

We’ve been twisted in the air around polling. There are polls for nearly everything from products to politics and at least in the case of the latter, some questionable ones. Who gets queried and with what questions can dictate the talking points of users of polling data. Pollsters themselves can and do fashion their polls to get a specific outcome. Groups with agendas regularly utilize polls geared toward their particular issue as an underhanded means of influencing outcomes. It goes something like this.

A poll about the current $1,900,000,000,000 stimulus package.

Audience to be polled – 786 people with incomes below $75,000 and a land line. 30% black, 25% Hispanic, 5% Asian and 40% white.

First Question: “Do you support $1400 payments to people earning less than $75,000?”

Second Question: “Should Democrats bypass Republicans if they obstruct giving $1400 to people earning under $75,000?”

Nightly News use of the results.

Polls show overwhelming support for Democrats using reconciliation to pass needed relief.

Most savvy media watchers are now jaded enough on polls to dismiss them…especially when they are counter to their own views. But they are still being thrown in our faces as justification for taking some kind of action. When a poll doesn’t fit the narrative, question the veracity of the poll. Who ran it? What did they actually ask? Of whom? You won’t see a lot of the answers; just the questions and no look behind the curtain. Indeed, polling companies are not in the business of explaining their polling process. Seems there is “science” behind it but I thought you were supposed to be able to replicate things using the scientific method. That may be the “old” science. We don’t teach that anymore.