view polls with healthy skepticism
the pew research center released the findings of a
poll regarding hurricane katrina. i quibble with the nature of the poll (glancing reference to state and local governments), but i've already voiced
my general displeasure about polls before.
my skepticism of this poll stems from the sampling which yielded results
outta whack with reality. despite the fact that fox news ratings have been
~30%-40% higher than cnn's, 31% in pew's sample cite cnn as the main source of info about katrina--~40% more than the 22% fox news garners.
pew would have to have quite a narrow, targeted sample to yield such results.
and
surprise! surprise! suprise! it does....
examination of the the
demographic breakdown reveals
40% more self-identified democrats than republicans despite the fact that national party registration is
essentially split between republicans, democrats and independents.
when a poll oversamples those that have less than positive feelings for bush, it may make for good headlines, but not necessarily relevant results.
update ~530pm: media bistro's always good tvnewser
tallies recent cable news ratings
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