Political reporters have only a superficial knowledge of political polling beyond horse race numbers. For example, take the term “push poll,� which is derided by the media as campaign sleaze.

True push polls are fake polls targeted at thousands of voters in an effort to smear an opponent and persuade. They are indeed rather sleazy tactics.

Push questions in a legitimate poll of a few hundred voters, on the other hand, are perfectly acceptable ways for candidates to test voter response to issues and candidate positions. They work something like this: “Candidate X wants to raise your taxes. Are you more or less inclined to vote for him/her?�

Push polls have such a bad media reputation that when voters hear the “push� question in a legitimate poll, they call the newspaper and complain candidate A is push polling. Reporters fall for it almost every time.

The N&O’s Under the Dome blog is the latest to do so, reporting today that a blogger went on the Daily Kos to complain that Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Beverly Perdue is push polling. The campaign denied it, saying they were not in the field with any poll.

First, why assume that because Perdue is mentioned, the poll is hers? It very well could be a legit poll by her opponent trying to figure out themes and messages.

Second, don’t political reporters have some obligation to sort out sleazy push polls from legitimate poll questions? Voters never see that distinction made, or even an explanation.

Finally, in this case, the only evidence Under the Dome has is a complaint on the liberal blog Daily Kos.

Under the Dome compounds its misunderstanding of the process by encouraging voters to record what they believe are push polls and send the recordings to the N&O.

When push comes to shove in campaigns, reporters need a better understanding of the process. Posted by Leroy Towns

This entry was posted on Monday, March 3rd, 2008 at 2:42 pm and is filed under Campaigns, Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.