Polls Can Be Manipulated by Pollsters for Political Reasons: Public Option Poll an Example
Retired long-time Gallup Pollster's book "The Opinion Makers: An Insider Exposes the Truth Behind the Polls, by David W. Moore gives us an eye-opening view about how deceptive polls can be. Sometimes the pollster can get the answer they want by the kind and way they ask the question. Moore also found that not enough options are given to Americans to fully determine if the person really understands the question. Just by asking this question, the polls becomes more easy to understand. Sometimes pollsters leave out crucial questions because polling is expensive.
But since polling run by cable and networks may have their own political agenda either to favor their advertisers or bottom line, it is important for Americans to not take them too seriously until many different polls are examined or a more neutral pollster such as the non-profit Pew Research Center http://people-press.org/ . But even with Pew, one must look for how thorough the polling has been done and the questions asked. Pew is one of the few organizations that routinely discloses their polling technique.
Note that the pollsters for the Republican Party and some network shows are also propagandists PR experts. As Wendell Potter, the top propagandist PR Communications Chief for CIGNA health insurance, said he used very sophisticated techniques to influence the opinions of congress and the American people by manipulating how they think. Corporations hire the best and brightest or hire top PR firms to do their dirty work.
Jim Kawakami, August 20, 2009, http://jimboguy.blogspot.com .
MoveOn.org Used the Same Polling Questions Used by NBC in June 09 Shows that 77 Percent of Americans Favor the Public Option Sam Stein Huffington Post 8/20/09 NBC Modified the Question Asked in Recent Polls
In asking its question SurveyUSA used the same exact words that NBC/Wall Street Journal had used when conducting its June 2009 survey. That one that found 76 percent approval for the public option: "In any health care proposal, how important do you feel it is to give people a choice of both a public plan administered by the federal government and a private plan for their health insurance--extremely important, quite important, not that important, or not at all important?" ...
Earlier in the week, after pollsters for NBC dropped the word "choice" from their question on a public option, they found that only 43 percent of the public were in favor of "creating a public health care plan administered by the federal government that would compete directly with private health insurance companies."
Opponents of the president's agenda jumped on the findings as evidence that backing for the public option was dropping. Proponents responded by arguing that NBC's tinkering with the language of the question (which it had also done in its July survey) had contributed to the drop in favorability for a public plan. ... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/20/new-poll-77-percent-suppo_n_264375.html
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