by D. Cupples | The Huffington Post is asking people to sign a petition and take a pledge to "Just say "'No'" to political pollsters. When they call your house, it's as simple as saying "No thank you," and hanging up. I, personally, won't avoid all pollsters all the time (exit polls can be useful), but I'll happily avoid those conducting pre-election polls. The online petition is here. Arianna Huffington writes:
"Today's political landscape is littered with politicians and reporters addicted to treating polling results as if Moses just brought them down from the mountaintop...."
""Look at the five days between Iowa and New Hampshire, when political conversation (including here on HuffPost) was dominated by polls that turned out to be wildly inaccurate.
"But even if they had been right, do we want our political debate dominated not by issues but by who is up and who is down, who is hot and who is not?
"No wonder politicians have become pathological people pleasers, addicted to the short-term buzz of a bump in the polls....
"But we can't expect these polling junkies -- both in the media and those running for office -- to kick the habit on their own. We have to stage an intervention. And it's as easy as hanging up your phone. Response rates are already abysmally low -- often dropping below 25%.
"So if enough of us refuse to answer, the polling data will become so unrepresentative and unreliable even the media would have to admit it was useless."
I agree with Ms. Huffington, at least in the pre-election context, which is hwy I've harped on political polls and the reporting of polling data for much of last year. For examples, see the posts linked below.
BN-Politics Posts:
* It's not Just NH: some Polls Favored Wrong Candidates Before Iowa
* Again, Polls Don't Mean Much: Hillary Wins New Hampshire
* Primary 2008: Polls Don't Seem to Mean Much
* Something's Amiss at Gallup: Approval Ratings 7 Mid-East Peace
* Polling Data Inadequately Reported
* CNN Poll: Bad News for Dems, No News for Republicans?
Comments