The Opinion Makers: An Insider Exposes the Truth Behind the Polls
Books / Paperback
Books › Social Science › Sociology › General
ISBN: 0807042331 / Publisher: Beacon Press, September 2009
In this presidential election year, Moore offers a fresh approach to the candidates’ polling percentages including preelection that polls conceal rampant voter indecision. He profiles pollsters’ tactics and demonstrates why public policy polls are almost always wrong. Going beyond a clear and critical argument for reform, Moore outlines steps to make polls deliver on their promise to monitor the pulse of democracy.
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With a new afterword by the author Drawing on over a decade's experience at the Gallup Poll and a distinguished academic career in survey research, David W. Moore—praised as a "scholarly crusader" by the New York Times—reveals that pollsters don't report public opinion, they manufacture it. In this highly critical book, he describes the questionable tactics pollsters use to create poll-driven news stories-including force-feeding respondents, slanting the wording of questions, and ignoring public ignorance on even the most arcane issues. More than proof that the numbers do lie, The Opinion Makers clearly and convincingly spells out how urgent it is that we make polls deliver on their promise to monitor, not manipulate, the pulse of democracy.
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