The bias problems with Rassmussen have been discussed and mocked by the lefty blogosphere for years. This year, after an article in Politico, there seems to be a growing consensus among the MSM punditocracy that unless there are polls by other firms that can confirm Rassmussen's data; you shouldn't use them as your primary source for opinion polling.
A comment by adipocere in
"Democracy is stronger than this.", prompted me to write
the following:
Rassmussen polls are a serious problem for their right-wing bias. this has been reported through netroots blogs for years but it wasn't until Politico wrote about it earlier this year and only from the context of congressional races that the punditocracy was forced to deal with this issue.
Nate Silver's take tries to be "fair and balanced" but he's right on point when he says: they have a knack for issuing polls at times which tend to dovetail with conservative media narratives.
Jonathan Chait goes right to the point:
Rasmussen polling occupies an odd place in the political culture. In the conservative world, it is the gold standard. If you go to a conservative set on basically any random day, you'll see somebody touting a Rasmussen poll. Here is John McCormack at the Weekly Standard touting a poll showing huge support to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Here is Peter Wehner at Commentary doing the same. Rasmussen frequently asks unusual polling questions that produce results almost certainly calculated to demonstrate public support for the conservative position. (Here's one example of a loaded Rasmussen question.) Rasmussen has become a right-wing celebrity. He's the author of a conservative book. This fall he is a featured guest on National Review's cruise, along with other conservative luminaries.
Part of Rasmussen's celebrity status derives from the fact that even his polls on commonly-asked questions skew strongly toward the conservative position.
and then there's Harry Enten's hard-core pollster take on the issue.
The moral of my comment? NEVER EVER ACCEPT A RASSMUSSEN POLL FROM A RIGHT-WINGER unless there are polls by other firms that can confirm Rassmussen's data. Because when it comes to social or political issues (not electoral races), Rassmussen only exists to re-inforce hard-core neocon talking points with the patina of objectivity and "science" bestowed by the word "poll".
and with that note: Carry on [...]
i don't know if it would be appropriate to ban Rassmussen polls as a reliable primary source for opinion polling. first amendment and all that. yet i truly believe their opinion polling is akin to concern trolling and merits serious /HAMBURGERing.
especially since it seems that many people on the site take their polling seriously enough to not question any potential bias on their claims that an alleged majority of New Yorkers are against Córdoba House. i mean, seriously, did they run that poll in GOP friendly neighborhoods only?
and that's the problem: they don't have to tell us which boroughs and neighborhoods they ran the poll. they easily could have done this on a slice of Queens bordering with Long Island, just to get any majority to fit their bias.
and boy, do their opinion polls fit the FOXNEWS frame of mind.
ugh.
posted by liza to MetaFilter-Related at 6:37 PM (77 comments total)
9 users marked this as a favorite
posted by selfnoise at 6:42 PM on August 1, 2010