Thoughts on media coverage of the election #3
Media rant 12 days to go
Hey TV3, can we talk about your polls? Not the way that you treat every poll as if it’s election day, or the way that you pretend that there are other polls – I’m aware that you have to pimp the poll you paid for…
I’m talking about your recent, meaningless polling about tax cuts. I know that the National Party is partly to blame for waiting so long to announce any detail at all, but as worded, your poll is a waste of time. “Do you want tax cuts” appears to be your question (though the specific question isn’t on your website, nor is it on the Reid Research site). What kind of tax cuts? For companies? For the rich? For the poor? Cuts to GST? Without context, you may as well not ask the question, because there’s no way you can discern anything meaningful from the responses. I know I’m right about this because even John Key agrees there are problems with the “framing” and he’s the kind of politician who everyone would like to have a beer with/take a selfie with .
Seriously, you pay people to advise you on this stuff. Either get better pollsters, or start listening to the ones you have
