Penn & Teller on Polling
Penn & Teller do a somewhat flacid bit on polling. They interview Frank Luntz and effectively make the point that crooked people make crooked polls. They extend this to the fallacy that all polls are crooked. And then take it way too far with a repeated chorus of “Fuck you, Frank!”
Polls are like any other science. The people that pay for them can shape their outcome to meet their desired conclusions. But they can be done well and some places (i.e. Marist and Quinnipiac) do an acceptable job of modelling public opinion.
Bottom line: who pays for those polls and who conducts them?
August 8th, 2006 at 4:36 pm
That should be required information on polls as well as “studies” on whatever it is being studied and reported on.
August 8th, 2006 at 5:12 pm
Yeah, they have fallen into a common libertarian mistake a couple of times: focusing on making a point rather than a reasonable truth.
August 9th, 2006 at 3:19 pm
I have a love/hate relationship with P&T. I love their shows, generally speaking, but I hate their politics, and from what I’ve seen, Penn is a major dickhead.