Saturday, March 17, 2007
Why I hate media polls: Reason #28392
Even the media doesn't know how to read polls:
The Leger poll gives [Charest's] Liberals 33 per cent, followed by the Action democratique du Quebec and the Parti Quebecois, both with 30 per cent. But the margin of error is 3.1 per cent, suggesting the race is virtually tied.Actually it suggests that it might not even be a race since, according to the margin of error, the Liberals could be at 36 per cent, and the other parties could be at 27 per cent.
Yet the article decides to focus on the margin of error in one direction only. How convenient.
Polls should be one tool for political analysis. Instead, they have become almost the entire narrative. I don't see how that is healthy for democracy. I really don't.
