[Pollster1]

"Others intentionally slant their samples, but the sleaze in some polling is not the only reason for these results."

I should have been more precise in my wording. There are pollsters who intentionally slant their results - through wording bias, non-random samples, or other options. There are also honest pollsters. Even these honest pollsters show a rough tie in the swing states: Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Virginia. And, yes, the media manipulate instead of reporting. As one journalist told me, "by selecting which facts to report or even lying when necessary, I can tell a higher truth through the story." [Okay, two decades later, that's not a literal quote, but it's at least a close paraphrase with the same tone as the original statement.]

[Aevery_Freeman]

And the media uses those polls, intentionally slanted by whatever means, to influence the attitudes and opinions of the electorate and therefore the findings of the legitimate pollsters.

D@mn herd mentality.