Sunday, October 14, 2007

Allen Wastle - CNBC Pulled poll

The other night, after the CNBC GOP (Grand old Party, or Republican Party) Debate, there was a poll asking the viewers who they believed won. Ron Paul was overwhelmingly winning the poll with over 75% of the vote. However, the poll and the results were eventually taken down. Allen Wastler, the editor of cnbc.com writes in an open letter why he decided to do this. Basically he says that the poll was not conforming with other "legit" polls so he decided to take the poll down. I don't even want to explain how this is wrong on so many levels. Obviously, there is a bias in this poll considering the fact that the participants must actively go to the website and vote, it is not a random sample, but this is no reason to take down a poll, even if you believed the results were somehow not representative. After all, elections are not "random samples", they are the results of those who pro actively go out of their way to have their voices heard and therefore vote. How is a poll any different?

Bottom line, I'm upset that Allen Wastler the editor of cnbc.com thinks he is allowed to interpret poll results and decide which should be kept up and which should be taken down. That is a perversion of our democratic society.

Here is a link to his letter which he later wrote.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/21257762


I just wrote an email to cnbc expressing my frustration with this act.

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