I was just called by an NBC pollster

nbc ^ | 12/10/05 | me

[WhiteGuy]

Popularity polls, like the "news" is a bought and paid for commodity, very little objectivity if any.

IMHO

[JustaCowgirl]

When I say it wouldn't happen, I mean that no valid sample survey would ask a content question, then ask for demographic information and stop the interview at that point.

There has to be a fixed order in which questions are asked. The order described would not be it. If it is, or they are free to change up the order of the questions, that's not a valid technique in surveys.

A valid survey would continue to take the information and then count the findings or not in the final results, not cut it off after one content question.

[meema]

This certainly confirms what we always knew, doesn't it.

[BigSkyFreeper]

I was just called by an NBC pollster. I found it interesting that I was first asked if I think the country is headed in the right or wrong direction, and only after I answered "right," did the man ask my age, and then tell me, "Oh, I'm sorry. The computer is screening for age groups and we're not looking for opinions from your age group at this time. Maybe we'll call you for your opinion later."

It's called "fiddling with the poll results until they get the desired results".