Polls, are they really worth anything

 

I once worked with a brilliant researcher, not medical but opinion. I was his client, he was mine and we shared a couple of clients. He also had tremendous insight garnered through polls, focus groups, reading and observation.

I have not talked with him for years, but I'd love to know his opinion on polls.

Politics, Policy, and Polls all begin with P Pol but there the resemblance ends. Politics can change our lives for good or bad depending on the politicians and policy. Polls seem to replace hard news and the need for the stories behind the polls. 

I don't want to know the percent of people who want to know what is in the Epstein Files. I want to know more about what the files say and why they haven't been released. Who is behind the block and, of course, who is in them. Every name of an alleged leaders. 

TELL ME THE STORY!!!! Don't waste my time on who might or not agree with me.

I would like a study on why in the last couple of important elections the polls were wrong. And why.

I question who was asked. If it was 1000, 2000 or even 5000 people asked, how can they  represent the 348.6 million people of the U.S.  How similar would a Maine farmer, a Boston history professor, a New York upper level finance manager, a Kansas school teacher, a Florida retiree, a Georgia factory worker, a Colorado ski instructor, a California wine grower, and a Seattle techie be representative of a the U.S. population even if they give the possible error rate. 

It does make sense that they could be representative of their own demographic group as in 45% of the teachers in New England think. . . But the polls do not give me the criteria of those questioned. If you have to poll, list the age, gender, occupation, location of each respondent, then divide them by party. Maybe that would make the poll leass valuable if I could say, not one person in the poll is anything like me.

Polls are published by the media. The American media is shrinking with a few billionaire owners and/or the companies they own. They have the same investors. Many own many newspapers, cables, magazines. It's a barrier cutting access to information.

Some of the biggie owners are:

• Jeff Bezos
• News Corp. (Murdoch family)
• Sinclair Broadcast
• Patrick Soon-schiong
• Lauren Powell Jobs
• John Henry
• David D. Smith
• Mark Berioff

These people control between them everything the public learns, not that they always agree. They also have access to government people from local politicians all the way up to the president.

Are you scared yet?

You should be.