Partying the Poll Away

In Michael Schwartz's "Opiate of the Electorate" he describes some of the difficulties and flaws in paying too close attention, and "getting addicted" to poll results. He discusses their imperfections and the drastic results of even a simple miscalculation. On October 30th Fox News, our right-wing biased news source released an article based on a single poll that suggested Mccain had narrowed his deficit to a mere 3%, placing him within the margin of error and in effect making the race a dead heat. However, nowhere in the article are we given information as to the day of the week the poll was taken (As Schwartz explains young adults, who tend to vote democratic are out partying on the weekends), the formulation of the question, or the number of people poled. This entire article, attempting to convince the reader that Mccain still has a chance is based on a single piece of information. 

If one were to examine this article further however, there is a small link in little tiny letters on the bottom that links to the raw data. This is where we can really begin to analyze how a poll can be misused if one does not now how to use the "drug" properly.  Essentially what Fox News is doing here is using one set of polls to attempt to draw a conclusion from one poll, despite the fact that only a week earlier Obama had a lead of 10%. This is one of the issues Schwartz warns against 

"The mass media- the pushers of this statistical drug- use the polls to build their ratings or sales and advance their political agendas".

 I found this comical video of Fox News on YouTube that attempts to prove that the race is close, because NICKELODEON polled kids and this placed Obama only 2 points ahead of Mccain.

Are you laughing yet?

The sad reality of polls, as is clear from Schwartz's article is that there are so many possible flaws and imperfections in polling, that to be distracted by their value (or lack thereof) is to be distracted from the real issues that an election presents. Instead of looking at what the polls tell us, decide for yourself what issues are important to and effect you, and leave the polls to the junkies and scholars.