The Big On-Line Polls

[ThomWV]

There isn't a person who participates in an on-line poll that doesn't ask themselves, just as they click the vote box, if their view on the matter at hand isn't in sync with the better informed segment of the respondents. We all do it. Moo.

Some of the heavy hitters of the on-line polling game - CNN, MSNBC, AOL, and others - attract tens of thousands of votes.

What seems so surprising to me is that other than Lou Dobbs it seems that rarely do you actually see the results of these polls televised. Certainly there is no statistical validity to the polls, but none the less, they do seem to model the mood of the moment.

For instance look at the current MSNBC Poll concerning Bush's impeachment. With something over 90,000 responses having been recorded there is an overwhelming, almost staggering, majority who support impeachment of the President for myriad and cumulative offenses against our Constitutional Democracy, Rights, and personal freedoms you still don't see it cited on the tube. Are the news programs afraid of being though frivolous? That's amusing.

So, the question seems to be, if they aren't using the polls for broadcast able information they why do they conduct them at all? Are they simply flypaper for cyberspace cattle?