“Polls are meaningless in the media. They are very useful in marketing and some other areas. However, what is used in the media is trash and just about as meaningful as another “study” on global warming, acid rain, the coming ice age or ozone hole.”
Obviously you haven’t kept up with political polling accuracy. The fact that every national politician hires pollsters should tell you something.
We can compare polling outcomes to actual election results to see which ones are accurate and which ones are off. All polls have a 3 or 4 percentage point statistical margin of error. That’s just good science.
Here’s the accuracy findings from the 2004 Presidential election.
http://www.pollingreport.com/2004.htm#Pollster
There are applications where polls have a meaning. This is not the case in the MSM. For example: The state department conducts polls on perceptions on issues in foreign nations. Polling is used extensively in marketing, and it is also used in politics etc. However, the polls you read about in CNN, MSNBC, CBS...... are near all trash. Leading questions, incorrect sample sizes or sampling technique, populations that are all dorked up and not representative...........trash. Complete utter nonsense that isn’t worth my time. Do you think a poll on CNN.com has any relevance to the real world? No. It’s there to give those reading this entertainment an experience that is satisfying in that it “involves them”, making them come back. The poll itself is insignificant as is the data collected.