Monday, January 04, 2010

By Alex Seitz-Wald

Reporting on criticisms of right-leaning pollster Scott Rasmussen, Politico presented as fact his official bio as “an independent pollster” who “has never been a campaign pollster or consultant.” The article quotes Rasmussen’s critics, but fails to question his supposed independence:

While Scott Rasmussen, the firm’s president, contends that he has no ax to grind — his bio notes that he has been “an independent pollster for more than a decade” and “has never been a campaign pollster or consultant for candidates seeking office” — his opponents on the left insist he is the hand that feeds conservative talkers a daily trove of negative numbers that provides grist for attacks on Obama and the Democratic Party.

According to the non-partisan Center for Public Integrity, Rasmussen has been a paid consultant for the RNC and President Bush’s 2004 campaign. The RNC paid Rasmussen $95,500 between 2003 and 2004 for items listed as “survey,” “survey cost” and “voter data.” Bush’s campaign paid Rasmussen $45,500 for “survey research.”

M.C.L. Comment: When it comes to the Rasmussen polls I always believe the opposite what the poll say. Like the article stated Rasmussen is the first poll firm that right wingers in the media like to cite anytime they want to push their attacks on the Democrat, or if you're like Communication guru and have a kick ass liberal blog the right wingers fill up your comment section with links to the various Rasmussen polls numbers.

No comments: