This is an extraordinary example on how polls are 'bent'

[mogster]

From here.
I saw this back some days here. With the change of how a term is phrased, the numbers are brought from minority to majority.

Anybody remember Tyson Homosexual, who won the 100 meter sprint for athletes?


http://www.rightwingwatch.org/2008/06/the_dangers_of_1.html

The story is so loony that it's kind of funny, but the issue at hand shows how the rw are thinking about the GLBT topic: they don't like the word Gay.
And in the poll at the top, we get the answer: It's because it appears to be more friendly and unoffensive than the 'technical' term.

This is a particular case for the gay topic, but how about other words or phrases on other issues too?
Do we get the right picture from polls?

[Captain Hilts]

1. It's all about doing a split sample to control for language. Abortion is like this. In these cases

it's not the pollster that's dishonest, it's the folks that commissioned the poll and how they choose to release that information.

[mogster]

2. Yes, isn't that true?

It's actually not a dishonest pollster but more of a poll ordered, or manufactured, to produce the intended result?
When I see things like this, I can't but think of the 'some people say' used by FOX and other media.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYA9ufivbDw

The use of opinion-bending phrases is not a coincidence, but a pattern.

[Greyhound]

3. Good demonstration of why governing-by-poll is such a bad idea. n/t

:kick: & R

[Odin2005]

4. Polls can be manipulated to say anything you want.