The release Tuesday of a joint ABC News and Washington Post poll bashing the performance of the president was based on telephone calls conducted by TNS Intersearch, a Pennsylvania research firm.
Efforts to locate the firm at their website on the internet resulted in error messages. TNS Interseach of Horsham, Pennsylvania, has nearly 1,000 listings on a popular search engine, but not one of them can be accessed. Their main site (www.intersearchcorp.com) is
Information provided by readers of this page, including extensive e-mails from several FREEPERS (enthusiasts of the popular
Many thanks for this new link to the firm:
With this cleared up, the simple fact remains that this poll was bought and paid for - as are all "media" polls - by the very leftwing news organizations that perpetually demonstrate their political bias in the selection and reporting of "news."
Here blares the lead-in to a story touting the poll on the ABC News Web site: "George W. Bush faces sharp challenges on political and policy fronts alike, marked by a steep jump in public disapproval of his energy policies and a broad call for him to reverse course in his approach to Congress."
Two questions in the poll give an indication of how suggestive such polls can be, and offer an insight into their underlying bias:
8. In the future, do you think Bush SHOULD try mainly (to push his own agenda in Congress), or try mainly (to compromise with the Democrats in Congress)?
Predictably, these questions resulted in solid majority responses that President Bush: a)
Well surprise, surprise! What do you expect when the questions are worded that way?
Including loaded questions such as these tend to pre-ordain that the results will follow the point of view that it is inherently bad to stand behind the program put forth during the campaign.
Actually, had the question been worded differently - "Do you think the President should pursue those issues he championed during the campaign or do you believe he should adopt positions of the party he defeated? - the results would be entirely different.
The worst result of questionable polls such as these is that the public as well as some policy-makers actually pay heed to such biased public opinion surveys.
Too many among the public are influenced by the media, just as they were on election night when literally millions of voters stayed home due to the media's early – and bogus – call of the election for Al Gore.
The last thing the public needs is more "official sounding" propaganda from the left wing, especially when there is no external, objective clarifying event such as an election to verify the results.
However, expect the floodgates to open. Just remember that polls paid for by the same folks who pay Rather, Jennings, Brokaw and Woodruff get you about the same political bias: way left of center.
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Dan Frisa represented New York in the United States Congress and served four terms in the New York State Assembly.
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