Thursday, November 29, 2007

Crappy Hilary Polling Reported

This week I've seen some stuff on a Zogby Interactive poll that showed Hillary losing to other opponents in one-on-one matchups. That surprised me because previously I'd seen her doing well. I know there has been some bad stuff but still it didn't seem like much. Well kos in Daily Kos explains Zogby "interactive" polls are junk. The "interactive" polls are different from their "phone" polls and are far less reliable. In fact, there was a recent Gallop poll with Hilary winning in one-on-one matchups.

Greg Sargent puts it in terms that really bother me. 'You could argue that the Zogby poll got all the coverage it did precisely because it is out of sync with multiple other polls, and thus is news. But the truth is that the reporters and editors at the major nets know full well that the Zogby poll is bunk -- yet they breathlessly covered it anyway. Worse, the Zogby poll was covered with few mentions either of its dubious methodology or of the degree to which its findings don't jibe with other surveys. Bottom line: The Zogby poll was considered big news because many in the political press are heavily invested in the Hillary-is-unelectable narrative for all kinds of reasons that have little to do with a desire to, you know, practice journalism."

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