NBC Pollster Behind Controversial Public Option Poll Has Long Ties To Insurance Industry

[LaPera]

NBC's Health Care Pollster Has Long Ties To Insurance Industry

The Republican half of the bipartisan team of pollsters behind a new, controversial poll on health care has longstanding ties to the health insurance industry that critics say biased the results.

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released on Tuesday, authored by Republican pollster Bill McInturff and Democratic pollster Peter Hart, showed a majority of respondents opposing a public option for insurance coverage. McInturff is one of the most respected pollsters in Washington, and his work is often treated as straightforward and honest. But the pollsters' decision to alter the language of their August survey has raised the eyebrows of industry observers.

Instead of asking whether people should be given a choice between a public and private plan -- as NBC/WSJ had done in its June 2009 survey -- the pollsters dropped the word "choice" in their July and August polls. In its place they asked whether people favored or opposed creating a public plan to compete with private insurers. Whereas two months ago, 76 percent of respondents said they felt it was either extremely or quite important to have a public option, in August that number was down to 43 percent.

"I think it's a very big deal to drop the word," said Wendell Potter, a former vice president at the insurance giant CIGNA. "This has been a strategy the industry has had for many years. They ask questions in many ways, knowing the way they are asking the questions will skew the result. Dropping the word choice is very important. It plays into some of the fears some of the people have been hearing lately, that the government would leave them without an option."

As Potter pointed out, McInturff has done extensive work on behalf of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) -- a major reform opponent. His firm, Public Opinion Strategies, played a leading role in crafting the industry's message and "voter empowerment" programs during the 2004 election. He himself has done fieldwork on AHIP's behalf and lists the insurance giant as a health care client. His work for AHIP, Potter says, extends back more than a decade.

(Full story)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/19/pollster-behind-controver_n_263057.html

[Thrill]

1. What a suprise? NOT

[wtbymark]

2. A scewed poll! No way, how could this be?

:sarcasm:

[GreenTea]

3. And I thought I was just paranoid thinking these polls were being manipulated by

the republicans and the corporations for their benefit to sway people into believing bullshit and the opposite of the way it really is...Shit even the WH goes by these bullshit polls.... and helps politicians make up their mind - against a public option...Slimy pollster fucks!

[DCKit]

4. A little more subtle than "Push Polling", but the same tactic.

The psychology behind this is fascinating, but if there were more of an emphasis on critical thinking in this country, it would be "FAIL" every time for these pollsters.

[Cha]

5. Imagine that! Just more verification

of what I already know after the manipulation and manufacturing of news and polls in the last 9 years by the corporateWhores.

[gratuitous]

6. And how successful was this transparent ploy?

Apparently very successful, because now every lazy talking chucklehead is going to point to the poll as "proof" that the public doesn't trust government, and fears a "takeover" of the health care industry. Any pro-public option spokesperson has to spend the first two minutes explaining how bogus this poll is, what the question should have been, and how people really do want the choice of a public option. By the time the record is straightened out, "our time is up" and it's on to the next breathless, deathless segment: Who's the new judge on American Idol?

[LaPera]

7. Good post! And how many other times have we've been misrepresented by threse "polls"?

Dozens & dozens of times I'm sure with the republicans in complete power for six years, (eight years of Bush) and their corporate media (and even progressive media, Olbermann & Schultz) going by these same polls & pollsters as fact, the corporations with unlimited amount of money will of course manipulate and try to change public opinion using their paid pollsters - And they will continue to deceive us as often as possible with polls in the future.

[Uncle Joe]

8. Kicked and recommended for exposing conflict of interest and corporate media manipulation of the

of the American People.

Thanks for the thread, LaPera.:thumbsup:

[mrobnoxious1]

9. All

polls are scewed.
Do people not realize this?

[Uncle Joe]

11. I disagree, all polls are not screwed.

If you believe that, you're running blind, not knowing which snapshot truly reflects the American Peoples' thoughts on the critical issues of the day.

Polls; can be deceptive and used for cynical psychological manipulation of the people and they should be called on it when they are.

The first poll on health care reform was decisive and the question was straightforward regarding what the people thought was best for them selves.

The question in the later second poll for consistency sake should have remained repetitive, instead they altered it to take advantage of long time corporate media/Republican propaganda demonization's affect of the American Peoples' regard toward their Representative government, pitting government against business in the hopes of creating an emotional backlash against the peoples' inherent best interests when logic overwhelmingly told them otherwise.

The corporate media have their own conflict of interest as well, the vast majority of it; or at least the powers that own it would prefer to rake in the Peoples' precious "health-care" dollars in the form of commercial dollars; that would go away with the best solution of single payer universal health coverage for every American from the cradle to the grave or would most likely diminish under a strong public option.

Welcome to D.U. mrobnoxious.:hi:

[Jennicut]

12. SOME polls are screwed. And this one was clearly manipulated.

[Uncle Joe]

13. I agree with that statement, that's why I recommended the thread. n/t

[PA Democrat]

17. screwed? skewed?

[GreenTea]

10. Kick!

:kick:

[progressoid]

14. big fucking surprise.

[Gold Metal Flake]

15. If the media had a liberal bias, this would not have happened.

[Echo In Light]

16. Shocking

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

18. This is why paying attention to polls is retarded.

If a slight rephrasing of the question results in a 30% shift in results, what exactly are you polling, except vague feelings?