Howard Kurtz: just a few thousand voters in Iowa...

[Zydeco]

It's funny: the media dismisses the Ames votes as the opinions of just 17,000 voters.

But that's roughly the size of the media that shapes American public opinion (for now, anyway).

It's not the number of opinions that matters, it's whose they are!

[ItsTime]

Yet they will show their cnn/fox news/PPP polls that have a fraction of that.

[Zydeco]

Right, but those are "scientific" polls :)

[Agorism]

I'm really dying for some new national polls.

[wstrucke]

Right, but those are "scientific" polls :)

They could actually be scientific polls so I wouldn't discount that, though I doubt most polls advertised by the MSM are scientific.

[brushfire]

Lots of money and resources spent on those few thousand voters. Its funny how crazy the media is about covering such a worthless event :d

[FSP-Rebel]

If it wasn't important then why did Pawpaw drop out afterwards?

[wstrucke]

I suspect brushfire was being sarcastic.

[Zydeco]

They're not in any way "scientific." For a generation now pollsters have known how to get the result they want on the issue they want -- within reason, but it's still a wide berth. Among other tactics you can 1) never publish a poll your customer doesn't like the results of 2) massage the wording to get a more desired result, or 3) futz with the options given to polled individuals, as in 2007 when Rasmussen hid the "Ron Paul" option behind an "other" wall, then reported him having 2% support.

[wstrucke]

They're not in any way "scientific." For a generation now pollsters have known how to get the result they want on the issue they want -- within reason, but it's still a wide berth. Among other tactics you can 1) never publish a poll your customer doesn't like the results of 2) massage the wording to get a more desired result, or 3) futz with the options given to polled individuals, as in 2007 when Rasmussen hid the "Ron Paul" option behind an "other" wall, then reported him having 2% support.

...


They could actually be scientific polls so I wouldn't discount that, though I doubt most polls advertised by the MSM are scientific.

Next time maybe read the comment before you try to argue against it? There is such a thing as a scientific poll. You may never see one released by the MSM -- that does not mean "they" do not exist.

[Zydeco]

I did read the comment, the poster expresses some doubt as to whether the polls are scientific, and I want to persuade him that his doubt is well-founded.

We're on the same side, wstrucke.

[Badger Paul]

If anything RP's showing is a great way to exploit media hypocrisy.

[wstrucke]

Okay, yes. We're all good.