Why I Distrust ALL Polls: Group Admits Twisting Gay Marriage Poll

[arwalden]

Conservative Group Admits Twisting Gay Marriage Poll

http://www.365gay.com/newscon04/01/010904pollTwist.htm

(Boston, Massachusetts) The leader of a conservative group fighting same-sex marriage in Massachusetts Friday admitted misrepresenting the findings of a statewide poll to support his cause.

At a protest Wednesday at the legislature (story) Ron Crews of the Massachusetts Family Institute cited a Zogby poll that indicated 69 percent of respondents wanted a chance to vote on amending the state constitution to ban gay marriage.

<SNIP>

But, what he did not tell the crowd, nor specify in media releases, was that a slight majority opposed the constitutional amendment (49-48 percent).

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ME: So he wanted us to believe that those who merely wanted the opportunity to vote ON such an ammendedment (and who were likely to vote AGAINST it) were being painted as somehow "supporting" the anti-gay ammendment.
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<SNIP>

The Zogby poll was taken for the Crews group, and the Massachusetts Family Institute did not release the full poll. Zogby released the information when it became concerned MFI was not portraying the full picture.

Pollster John Zogby said it is standard practice for advocacy groups to issue entire polls for public examination. "All of the questions are important," said Zogby.

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ME: I'm glad that this turned out well and that the truth was revealed. It makes me wonder how many other polls have been MISREPRESENTED and purposely MISINTERPRETED.

It's very likely that when the results of a "run-of-the-mill" and less controversial poll is misrepresented, it would go unnoticed by the Zogby organization... and nobody from Zogby would be rushing to clarify the actual results.

Even though I'm pleased to see polls that APPEAR to be in our favor, and even though I grin when I see polls that show a growing distrust of Bush... I'm suspicious of those results too. Opt-in online polls are most deceptive and skewed.

This story shows that even the results of scientific polls are vulnerable to the whims of those who commissioned the poll in the first place.

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<SNIP>

In a press release issued Friday, Crews said that polls are "proprietary, important and relevant to those who commissioned the poll" and that the portions released were those most relevant to the issue before the Legislature.

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ME: In other words... he's saying "we only wanted to show that which helped our cause" regardless if it was a lie or not.
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He also criticized Zogby for making the full poll results public. Crews said his group is in legal discussions with Zogby International about what he called the "unauthorized disclosure" of information in the poll.


-- Allen

edit: Finished editing message. I had clicked "submit" before I was finished.

[gWbush is Mabus]

1. and you definitely do not contradict

clients with deep pockets who will pay you a lot of money in the future for more polls, unless you want to go out of business.

[w4rma]

2. You don't allow a client to smear your reputation by misrepresenting

your work, either.

[David__77]

3. A vote would be marginally worse than the polls indicate.

The problem is that the bigot forces are more motivated than our straight allies are with regard to these issues. This creates an electoral problem that may not appear in polls. As time goes on, the bigot constituency wanes through attrition, so things will improve in the long run. Legislators who vote for marriage equality I don't think will suffer much though. The heat of the moment may have passed by then IF they act expeditiously for equality.