Zogby

In the wake of the recent "poll" conducted by Zogby and friends, I felt like pointing out a few things about Mr. Zogby's polling methodology and reputation.

If you'd like to read a legitimate poll that covers similar topics, I'll kindly refer you here or here. I'm a former academic. You'll have to excuse my inclination to use valid research. Some people like Zogby. I find his polling methods suspect. Wanna know why? Keep reading.

According to the American Association of of Public Opinion Research Best Practices: Good professional practice imposes an obligation upon all survey and public opinion researchers to include, in any report of research results, or to make available when that report is released, certain minimal essential information about how the research was conducted to ensure that consumers of survey results have an adequate basis for judging the reliability and validity of the results reported.

Mr. Zogby, however, is proud of the fact that he will refuse to release the sponsor of a poll, and sometimes even poll results (assuming, of course, that the poll didn't turn out the way the sponsoring entity had hoped).

Furthermore, well, don't take my word for it...

-"The pollsters have a view of Zogby that doesn't seem to be shared by the news organizations," observes Warren Mitofsky, who sits on the polling review board of the NCPP.

-The chief reason that the polling establishment disapproves of Zogby is his practice, in political polls, of weighting for party identification.

-There is also the matter of interview protocol. All pollsters include options such as “not sure” and “don’t know,” but not all interviewers are instructed to read those options to the respondents. (Zogby’s interviewers almost never do.)

-Zogby International has a long history of preparing polls for political advocacy organizations. Not surprisingly, these polls tend to show results favorable to the client's political interests. Thus Zogby polls for right wing groups show public support for Clinton's impeachment and president Bush's policies, Zogby polls for the libertarian Cato Institute show the popularity of Social Security privatization...

Want me to keep going, because I can...

Check out this page for a description of what it's like to take a Zogby poll.

I think Zogby should stick to picking winners and head to Vegas. As far as learning about public opinion, I'll stick to the other guys.