Sorry, but I'm still bothered by the way the news media mishandles public opinion surveys, and yes, I realize that their purpose is to create news and that they define news as conflict (depending on how you define the word "is"). Immediately after the four hour video of the president's palling testimony was aired on the last full day of summer, the network nabobs were in the field testing public opinion - even from the 41% who said that they knew nothing about a video of the president's grand jury performance. Reason would dictate that anyone interested in a veracious public opinion would wait a few days after a major event to let matters sink in before testing attitudes.
Andy Rooney of CBS Sixty Minutes was interviewed the other day and said he didn't trust those polls, because whenever a big event takes place, his network calls in 100 people to telephone five or six citizens each and then extrapolate the answers of a few hundred to report on the air what all 260 million of us think about important things. They tell us that the American people love and hate Clinton. I am reminded of a CBS survey of 1996 delegates to the Republican National Convention. The question was, do I approve or disapprove of Bob Dole's changed position on abortion. I said I have been paying attention and didn't know of any change, that he had the same position for the past 30 years. I was told that there was no slot for that answer so they would put me down as undecided on Dole's changing position that had not changed.
Here's what set me off again. One question on the September 21 NBC survey was worded something like this: Do you think that the Republicans released the president's video for partisan reasons? Seventy percent said yes.
Think about that combination of words. How could it not be partisan if the interviewer said Republicans did it (instead of a majority in Congress). Would the answer be the same if the word "Democrat" was inserted instead of Republican? Sure. If Republicans do something, it is partisan. If Democrats do something, it is partisan. The person who drafted the question knew the answer before asking the question and that is another thing that makes media polls different from campaign polling. Politicians don't waste money asking questions to which they know the answer, for example:
"Do you think it's okay for men to beat their wives?"
"Do television commercials influence who you vote for?"
"Do you approve or disapprove of a tax increase?"
"Are Republicans (or Democrats, or Libertarians) partisan?"
Give me a break! I deal with manipulation of public opinion surveys in the chapter on the media in my book - IS AMERICA BEYOND REFORM?
Gordon K. Durnil
Author of: IS AMERICA BEYOND REFORM?, Sligo Press www.sligopress.com and THE MAKING OF A CONSERVATIVE ENVIRONMENTALIST, Indiana University Press
