The Fox Jumped Over the Box

(Fox News Poll: Republicans Maintain Lead in Midterms)
Now, Dana Blanton, the infamous and ingenious "polling" expert makes Headliner news on the front of FoxNews.com.(pictures below) The irrefutable news heavy-weights in Internet News sources has apparently conducted a recent poll that indicates that registered voters are leaning conservative. More specifically there are percentage gaps opening between Republicans and Democrats. Dana Blanton doesn't provide any links for you to view the actual poll conducted, or where FOX derived their control group from, which if you don't know what that [control group] is, then what good is your statistics? (1)

Mostly the article consists of the kind of questions where the survey respondents answers yes or no to straight-forward questions: "Do you think your children will have a better or worse future?" A lot of "registered voters" think their children will be worse off...How optimistic. Blanton brings so much light to the curiosities that bloat us everyday...


Check out the ScreenShot I got!

 Okay, Okay, enough sarcasm for one article. While Blanton's poll was serious and in-depth, the fact that there is no apparent history for this woman's reputation, there is only one link showing the resulting data of the poll, but nothing else to reference or connect the reader to the poll. I ask, where can I sign up for participating in this poll? When clicking on the link to view the raw data, you'll see that the poll was conducted for only two days and by phone. Remember class discussions when we were asked if we had a Land-line? Excellent stuff. (2)

I like to take particular note how towards the bottom of Blanton's article she states how; "the administration has failed to convince the majority of voters that patience will pay off..." The numbers are: 45% say it won't pay off, and 44% say it will...WOW what a majority.

I'm not saying that we aren't leaning towards a republican ruling this next mid-term, but where is the support for this article? Who is this article intended for? Most likely Fox News readers who are lacking confidence. The questions that were asked seemed more ambiguous than, "Are you voting republican?" and upon looking at the raw data again and again, you'll note that the approval ratings for Democratic policy are actually higher than that of the Republicans, but hey, what do I know. I don't have my Masters from George Washington State in Public Policy.(3)

I do think it is great that American Voters love their country "Very Much" as opposed to "A Lot." Find that question in the Raw Data!


Related Links:
1: http://psy.st-andrews.ac.uk/resources/glossary.shtml
2: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101014/00463611420/obvious-news-is-obvious-polls-that-only-call-landlines-may-be-biased.shtml

3: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dana-blanton/24/308/69b