Flawed poll on Occupy Wall St vs. Tea Party (Time poll: OWS far more "favorable" than Tea Party)

Washington Examiner ^ | 10/13/2011 | Philip Klein

[Qbert]

Liberals are touting a new Time magazine poll purporting to show that twice as many people have a favorable view of Occupy Wall St. than the Tea Party. "Americans favor Occupy Wall Street far more than Tea Party," the Washington Post's Greg Sargent beamed in a headline. To Sargent's credit, he acknowledged that the Tea Party has been around far longer, which clearly affects the results. But the problem with the poll goes far beyond that. Just take a closer look at how the questions were worded.

First, here's the question on Occupy Wall St.:

Q11. IN THE PAST FEW DAYS, A GROUP OF PROTESTORS HAS BEEN GATHERING ON WALL STREET IN NEW YORK CITY AND SOME OTHER CITIES TO PROTEST POLICIES WHICH THEY SAY FAVOR THE RICH, THE GOVERNMENT’S BANK BAILOUT, AND THE INFLUENCE OF MONEY IN OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM. IS YOUR OPINION OF THESE PROTESTS VERY FAVORABLE, SOMEWHAT FAVORABLE, SOMEWHAT UNFAVORABLE, VERY UNFAVORABLE, OR DON’T YOU KNOW ENOUGH ABOUT THE PROTESTS TO HAVE AN OPINION?

This states the views of the Occupy Wall St. crowd in as sympathetic a way as possible -- even most conservatives and libertarians opposed the Wall St. bailout and the type of crony capitalism that comes with mixing money and politics. This is not the controversial aspect of Occupy Wall Street.

Yet here's how the Tea Party question is phrased:

Q8. ON ANOTHER ISSUE, IS YOUR OPINION OF THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT VERY FAVORABLE, SOMEWHAT FAVORABLE, SOMEWHAT UNFAVORABLE, VERY UNFAVORABLE, OR DON’T YOU KNOW ENOUGH ABOUT THE TEA PARTY TO HAVE AN OPINION?

So, while the "Occupy Wall Street" question is phrased in a sympathetic manner, the Tea Party question just mentions the name "Tea Party," which has been associated with partisan fighting for over two years now. Had pollsters approached the Tea Party question in the same way as the Occupy Wall Street one, they may have written something such as: "Do you support the movement that opposes the Wall Street bailouts, thinks Washington has gotten too big and powerful, and wants to lawmakers to respect America's founding Constitutional principles?" That clearly would have made respondents view the Tea Party more favorably.  

Given the biased way the questions were phrased in the Time poll, it's no surprise that 54 percent viewed Occupy Wall Street favorably, compared with just 27 percent who said they viewed the Tea Party favorably.   

A survey by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling asked much more straight forward questions, and the numbers were much closer. "Do you support or oppose the goals of the Occupy Wall Street movement?" PPP asked, and 35 percent indicated support, while 36 percent said they opposed the goals. Asked the same of the Tea Party movement, 39 percent supported it compared to 45 percent who opposed it. On a head-to-head question, "Do you have a higher opinion of the Occupy Wall Street movement or the Tea Party movement?" 40 percent chose Occupy Wall Street compared with 37 percent who chose the Tea Party. I'd predict as more people get to know the Occupy Wall Street movement, it will become less popular. But either way, it simply isn't fair to say that it's currently twice as popular as the Tea Party.

[piytar]

Of course it is not fair. It is pure propaganda...

[fight_truth_decay]

[SumProVita]

Lol! More favorable to whom? ....

[USS Alaska]

Liberals are touting a new Time magazine poll purporting to show that twice as many people have a favorable view of Occupy Wall St. than the Tea Party.

OK then, whistling past the graveyard.

[oldbrowser]

I copied this from one of the comments at that site:

Unofficial poll results:
Iran's leaders prefer OWS rally to Tea Partiers by by 100% margin
Hugo Chavez prefer OWS rally to Tea Partiers by by 100% margin
Professed Communists prefer OWS rally to Tea Partiers by by 100% margin
Homosexuals prefer OWS rally to Tea Partiers by by 100% margin
Drug addicts prefer OWS rally to Tea Partiers by by 100% margin

Married couples over the age of 40 prefer Tea Partiers by by 100% margin
People who pay taxes and work for a living prefer Tea Partiers by by 100% margin
People with kids prefer Tea Partiers by by 100% margin
I believe this presents a truer picture of the polling being reported.

[marstegreg]

the same “baiting” occurred on a recent nbc poll that states 63% favor the Presidents Job Plan. Only 30% originally favored it (according to the same poll). Then the next question extolled the virtues of the bill and asked if you favored it. Guess what? 63% were in favor of it. That is the ONLY result NBC was reporting this morning.

[dps.inspect]

Hey ya’ll, we’re not in this to win a popularity contest, we’re in this to wipe the floor with their scrawny miscreant asses... don’t get sucked into their delusion...

[onedoug]

Time? Good Lord....

[Retired Greyhound]

Biased as it may be, I’m not surprised to that the Tea Party is unpopular with the brainless American electorate, especially given the media drumbeat

[Lionheartusa1]

,,,,,, I would think the smell alone ought to give you the correct poll results .

[kevao]

You’re quite right — this poll does not pass the smell test!