This week you’ll read a great deal about the latest Newsweek/Daily Beast poll (also, embedded below,) titled, “America the Angry,” “Angry Americans,” “Anger In America,” or even, “Anger In America: Could The Arab Spring Happen In The U.S.?” And you should immediately discount it as a work of, if not fiction, then arrogant media wrangling. This, surely, is what Sarah Palin means when she says, “the lamestream media’s gotcha journalism,” right? Shame on you, Newsweek/Daily Beast Editor Tina Brown and shame on you, Douglas Schoen, author of the article and presumably the one responsible for the so-called “poll.”
By the way, the title, “Anger In America: Could The Arab Spring Happen In The U.S.?” comes from reading the URL of the page the “poll” is published on. Obviously, given all the different names, it looks like some Newsweek/Daily Beast editor was just dying to grab some Google traffic off of “anger,” angry,” “America,” and “Americans” keyword searches, with “Arab spring” thrown in for good measure.
Schoen introduces his “poll” by setting you up with the “fact” that “reality is beginning to break down Americans’ normally optimistic attitude. Three-quarters of our respondents think the country is on the wrong track. A majority say the anxiety wrought by this recession has caused relationship problems and sleep deficiency. Two-thirds even report being angry at God,” Schoen claims.
I say “Schoen claims,” because while he writes in his Daily Beast article, “two-thirds even report being angry at God,” somehow that “fact” doesn’t even show in his “polling data” he embeds on the site (also, below.) Curious, no?
Schoen, to be fair, is a political analyst for Fox News, and got his start in his extensive polling career working for Dick Morris in high school. Schoen also is a founding partner in the political polling firm of Penn, Schoen & Berland. And (big surprise!) Schoen just wrote a book with Scott Rasmussen (as in the notoriously right-wing slanted Rasmussen polls that the Tea Party and Fox News love so much) titled, “Mad As Hell: How the Tea Party Movement Is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two-Party System
All this said, a couple of points first you probably already know about polls.
First, any reliable pollster will publish the complete results of a poll.
Second, any reliable nationwide survey generally will poll at least one thousand respondents, especially if it is a broad poll where anyone who answers the phone — if that’s the contact method they used — is a fit respondent.
Third, any reliable nationwide poll will publish not only the answers to the poll, but the exact questions asked, with any variations, and in what order asked.
Fourth, any reliable nationwide poll will publish complete methodology, including who they polled. Americans? Likely voters? Registered voters? Age ranges. Political affiliations. Sometimes religious affiliations…
Fifth, any reliable nationwide poll generally will reach an odd number of respondents. 600, for example, is a strange number to reach, especially over a period of four or five days.
Sixth, any reliable nationwide poll will tell you how they got responses: telephone? Landline? cellular?Email? Internet?…
I suppose I could go on, but all I need to do at this point is to tell you that the latest Newsweek/Daily Beast poll on “Angry Americans” does none of the above.
All Doug Schoen (again, presumably the one responsible for the poll,) does is offer some nice graphics (actually, not really even that nice, but they are in color!) and frame the results without telling you the question. Nice work if you can get it.
Schoen’s “poll” says “This survey was conducted with a representative sample of 600 American adults across the country on April 29th – May 1st, 2011.” What is “a representative sample of 600 American adults?” He doesn’t say.
Schoen claims, “By almost four-to-one, Americans say government is not solving our economic problems.” Really? Is government supposed to solve our economic problems? What was the question asked that brought Schoen to this realization? I don’t know, do you? How was it phrased? Who answered it?
Schoen says, “Respondents say our economy is not delivering the jobs we need by 81% to 12%.” News? Not at all. But the number spread there looks great! (Makes it sound like a lot of Americans are really pissed! That should get The Daily Beast a lot of hits!)
Schoen’s polls proclaims, “while Americans are very concerned about the economic and fiscal issues facing the country, they do not feel that neither President Obama nor the Republicans are addressing these issues.” Huh? So, Americans do feel Obama and the Republicans are addressing these issues? Who writes like that? And what Republicans? House? Senate? Local? State? And why don’t we know how Americans feel about Democrats? What was the question, Mr. Schoen?
Schoen continues: “They say Obama does not have a real plan to cut the deficit, 55% to 33%, and that he does not have a real plan to cut spending, 46% to 42%.” So, 42% of Americans believe Obama does have a plan to cut spending, is that what this says? That’s actually pretty impressive.
More: An actual question! “Do you think that Obama has a real plan to cut the deficit, or does he not have a real plan?” Wait. I take that back. That was a question? Doug, you picked up the phone (well, I assume these people were contacted by phone, and this isn’t some World Net Daily online poll…) and asked 600 people, “Do you think that Obama has a real plan to cut the deficit, or does he not have a real plan?” I amazed they answered and didn’t hang up on you.
Gotta love that “real plan” language, implying there is a fake plan that maybe Obama has…
Did anyone ask these 600 people if the deficit was important? What order did this question come? What questions did you ask before it? Were they, “Is the deficit out of control and responsible for the huge and unprecedented unemployment numbers we are seeing under President Obama after two years in office?” Was there a question in the poll about Obama’s birth certificate too? I wouldn’t be surprised…
Schoen writes, “Given that Americans are concerned about the country’s economic issues and feel that neither party is adequately addressing these issues, it makes sense that they feel frustrated and upset.” How do we know this? Where’s the data? And when have Americans not been “concerned about the country’s economic issues,” and when have Americans not felt “frustrated and upset?”
Schoen continues: “Over half (52%) say their personal economic situation makes them nervous. 48% say it makes them anxious, 44% say it makes them upset, and 30% say it makes them angry.” Really? Is this normal? Can you compare it to a year ago, a month ago? A decade ago?
How about this priceless example of putting words in people’s’ mouths?
“Generally speaking, does your personal economic situation make you nervous, anxious, upset, angry?” (Based on the graphic, we assume this was the question, but have no way of knowing because Schoen did not publish the question or the order of questions.)
How about including, “happy,” “hopeful,” “enthusiastic,” “calm?” Could Schoen lead the jury any more that this?
Or let’s look at this one: “70% of Americans are nervous about their retirement because of their personal economic situation,” and “45% are nervous about being able to put their children through college, 31% are nervous about starting a family, and 29% are nervous about being able to afford to buy a home.”
So of course we know that all 600 of Schoen’s respondents have two or more children, based on the answer to the unidentified question. Oh wait, but then we see that some of them haven’t started families yet… And do they even want to? Look at the home-buying portion and make your own deduction. Do 81% of Schoen’s respondents already own a home? Do they want to?
Schoen “finds” that 42% of Americans answered “no,” to the question, “Would you say that you feel stagnated in terms of your income?” I’m amazed it was that low. Who doesn’t feel “stagnated in terms of your income?” This is America! “More, more, more!” is our rallying cry!
But seriously, again, that’s an actual question? Leading, much? Same goes for Schoen’s “Do you feel like you don’t make enough money to live your life the way you want to?” Amazing that only 44% said “yes.” What’s more amazing is the way the data is presented: “54% disagree.” Really? That means that a majority of Americans — despite being asked a leading question, in a poll clearly designed to obtain negative responses — feel that they do make enough money to live their lives the way they want to!” Given the level of unemployment, underemployment, and people on welfare and food stamps, that’s news! But they way it’s presented is simply sleazy and shameful.
How about, “27% say their family’s economic situation has impacted their health, and 26% of those married say it has impacted their marriage”? So, were all 600 married? How many are married? What percent? We have no idea.
Let’s look at this one: “Of those who say they are angry about their personal economic situation, 13% say their anger has impacted their sex life. 78% say it has not.” America the angry? Really? only 13% of Americans say money — assuming lack thereof — is negatively impacting their sex life? This is America! Americans are pissed whenever anything gets in between them and sex! 13%? The title of this “poll” should be, “America — getting enough, thank you very  much.”
There’s this little thing called journalism that is under attack in America. Journalism, and facts, and fairness. Let’s be honest. I’m about as liberal as they come. Despite the fact that Schoen is a political analyst for Fox News, Schoen, has worked for many Democrats. Schoen, you should know, was named Pollster of the Year in 1996 by the American Association of Political Consultants.
I could easily parrot this study and write about something else an hour from now. But what America thinks is really, really important to me. Presenting facts and reality properly and accurately is really, really important to me. Thst’s why Sarah Palin sends me into a tailspin. So does Fox.
Perhaps Americans are really just angry about being lied to, and having “facts” presented with such slant and arrogance that they are not meaningless but so meaningful as to tell people what to think, not what they are thinking?
Like I said, there’s this little thing called journalism. It’s a little too near and dear to my heart to let it suffer any more without my speaking out once in a while. Doug Schoen, this “poll” is irresponsible and in my opinion, has zero credibility. And Tina Brown, shame on you! Hand in your press pass — you just lost all rights to it.
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