If the Muslim Brotherhood conducted a poll and reported that the people of the world favored Islam as a religion, that would have as much credibility as a USA Today / Gallup Poll saying that the "Public favors union rights". (USA Today Feb. 23, 2011) It is no secret that many of the "polls" conducted by the main stream media, including USA Today, are used to influence public opinions, and even influence elections. A former executive of Gallup in a book revealed how polls can definitely be influenced to obtain a desired result.
In the USA Today / Gallup Polls we don't know specifically WHAT QUESTIONS were asked and HOW they were asked, and in WHAT CONTEXT. We also don't know WHO was asked and if, indeed, they are a representative sampling of the population. Oh yes, we know about sampling plans and statistics, but we are talking about the complexities of sampling human beings here, not widgets off a production line.
Given the above, the American people should think about the following. According to the US Census the 2008 voting age population of the United States was 226 million people. The USA Today / Gallup Poll that was conducted on the union issue supposedly polled 1,000 people. We don't know the answers to the questions above on how the poll was conducted. Add to that the extreme complexity of polling human beings (not widgets). Add to that the known fact that USA Today WANTS the result to turn out as they claim. Then think about the fact that the polling sampled 1,000 people out of 226 million or 0.000004, or .0004 % of the voting age population!
Before anybody in America puts faith in the USA Today headline, "Public favors union rights" they should think about the above. A great disservice to America is being done by these types of polls and claims. Especially since just the opposite may very well be true.
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