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More on dodgy polls, Ctd

by Whaleoil on November 20, 2011

It seems the media are trying to manipulate an election, and they will stoop to extremely low levels including using dodgy polls that have been hijacked by political parties.

The editor at the Sunday Star-Times must have balls the size of basketballs for banking the reputation of his paper on the results fo the dodgy Horizon Poll.

I have pointed out just how easy it is to manipulate the poll. I know of several folk with up to 15 logins who are doing the poll.

David Farrar points out just how out of whack their methodology is.

The spreadsheet above compares the Horizon poll to the weighted average of the five main pollsters. The differences are huge and massive. The SST would know this. Yet they still made this poll their front page, without even disclosing the difference in methodology.

Even worse the SST (at least online) doesn’t disclose the actual percentages for the big parties. I assume this is deliberate because they know if they said National is on 35% only, everyone would laugh.

There are going to be some very embarrassed people come Sunday morning and some professional media reputations will be in tatters, especially when they devote front pages to dodgy polling methodologies.

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  • thor42

    Utterly shameful, but then the MSM have never had any shame to speak of.

  • Nolocontendere

    Most of the Horizon poll may be dodgy, but I support it in this finding:

    “The poll also asked whether the issue has impacted New Zealanders’ view on the credibility of the Herald on Sunday, with 43.1 per cent thinking it made the newspaper less credible and 11.8 per cent more credible.”

    As kindly reported on nzherald.co.nz by APNZ: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10767442

  • Anonymous

    The SST is nothing more than toilet paper for a longdrop.

    • Ben Ross

      Shit that is rather harsh – for my arse that is.
      To the point using the SST (and HoS) as toilet paper would be insulting my poor arse (and the long drop with such filth)

      Wonder what else…

  • thor42

    I quote from DPF’s KiwiBlog – “…certain parties and activists openly recruit their supporters to sign up for the Horizon poll, as it is an Internet panel poll.” 
    If this is true, then the so-called “poll” is completely worthless.
    There is no element of “random selection” about it. 

  • Alex (not the Leftist twat)

    I’m starting to feel we should adopt the French approach: polls banned a month before the election.  Would likely stop the Garner and Gower and their ilk trying to see if they can change the polls. 

  • Dion

    > for banking the reputation of his paper on the results fo the dodgy Horizon Poll.
    You mean to say it had a reputation to begin with? :)

  • Peter Wilson

    It reaffirms my view, that, privately, Key would be chuckling at how well he took advantage of an opponents error – the secret recording of a private conversation – and turned it massively to his advantage. He even reeled in poor old Winston as part of the play.

    Watch as NZF’s vote stagnates around 3.5%, sucking up even more of Labour’s vote, that, ultimately will be wasted. And, of course, the publicity will galvanise ACT’s support, in Epsom, allowing them to bring in even more seats in support of National.

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