Idiotic and unscientific polls are the mass media's way of avoiding having to send out reporters to write up any stories.
They just report opinions as news.
The mass media's news has become almost wholly about opinions and biases, and virtually nothing about facts anymore. That would take some awareness of what is going on -- which people who are wholly concerned with their own job security and advancement, are not your best sources of information.
When your entire news gathering technique consists of running self-selected polls, you know they've hit bottom and don't know the difference between a fact from an opinion anymore.