Friday, September 21, 2007

News Channel Polls and Questionnaires

Watching middle of the night TV recently, I see a lot of polls that are touted to be significant by the news channels. As if society should be run by mob rule. Don't you just "love" the way poll questions are phrased? Either you are not given the choice you really want to make, or the question asks the completely wrong thing. Then the answers are proclaimed to mean something. The same thing happens with almost every questionnaire I run into. I am asked to choose between A and B when I see that the real answer should be C, or the question will be about whether the government should mandate X or Y when it is obvious that the government has no authority in the discussed area whatsoever. These polls are designed to manipulate the debate. Yet it seems that few people catch on to this. I think I may just start answering every poll I can find and always choose "other" or the most nonsensical answer on every one.