See saw polls. Partisan on each side on weblogs touting polls that show their side ahead as proof that the other side is in trouble and often ignoring polls that show the opposite. When a poll comes out that gets a lot of attention showing the other side ahead, using the increasingly tired mantra of “bad methodology” (the latest example is Team Obama). And YES there are partisans on each side that do try to analyze and give a non-spin take on what they see in polls.
But the big question is: has that much really changed when you stand back — like, at 30,000 feet — and put aside partisan talking points and spin? Nate Silver suggests it hasn’t changed all that much (but if could).
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.