Guys, Real Clear Politics has gone OFF THE CHARTS in terms of obfuscation of poll results, peddling a false narrative, and disingenuousness. Before you lambast me for even mentioning them right now, realize that even left leaning news organizations rely on their aggregates:
MSNBC giving the Real Clear Politics morning breakdown for everyone!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
CNN relies on them... Fox HEAVILY relies on them... Now you know how big the stakes are, no other polling aggregate site defines the polling narrative for the media more than them... and people still think they are impartial!
Polling is heavily defining the narrative right now, just look at the front page of Google news:
I wrote a recommended diary about this after noticing it a week ago. It has gotten MUCH worse, but go see the evidence there before you read on: Real Clear Politics, Horse-race Media, and Why You are Falling for a "Close Race"
WE CAN'T IGNORE THIS - UNDECIDED VOTERS SEE THIS - THE MEDIA REPORTS THIS
More beyond the fold...
So, lets just get this out of the way... With the slew of PPP polls, cvote, national trackers that have Obama ahead, Grove, Mellman, this is what RCP's latest polls looks like:
Notice, they have been reduced to reporting mostly Rasmussen, Gravis, and a few more polls...
Virginia has had two PPP polls with Obama ahead now in a row, and one Mellman Poll. Today's poll PPP, and their PPP poll 7 days ago were never reported. What does Virginias RCP look like?
So maybe they just don't use PPP polls, then, right?
WRONG!
The thing is, they never reported the Iowa poll showing Obama ahead on 10/19/2012, and they kept the one showing Romney ahead. They will not update any of these polls (or maybe they will as a result of pressure from this diary and other news sources).
Iowa has had some particularly good polling for Democrats lately. So has Wisconsin. Ohio... North Carolina... Virginia...
I am tired of this willful obfuscation. I am going into social research, and this damages our image if a site pretends to offer all of the latest polls, but is now resorting to straight up cherry picking while media like MSNBC and CNN, and even liberals who followed RCP last election to get a constant update of polls still think it has legitimacy. Here is from their wiki page:
"The site's founders say their goal is to give readers "ideological diversity".[3] They have described themselves as frustrated with what they perceive as anti-conservative, anti-Christian media bias,[4] and while Patrick Stack of Time magazine has described the commentary as conservative-leaning,[5] the site includes columns and commentary from both sides of the political spectrum. Politico Executive Editor Jim VandeHei has called the site "an essential stop for anyone interested in politics."[6]"
A long time ago, Nate Silver accused them of rigging their output:
When Nate Silver of rival site FiveThirtyEight.com claimed RealClearPolitics.com was rigging its averages to favor Senator John McCain and other Republicans, McIntyre denied having a conservative bent, stating, "We're running a business, We have no interest in screwing around with that for partisan purposes."[22] Silver later backed away from the claim and said the two sites had a friendly rivalry and grudging respect for each other.[22]
I wonder what Nate would think today.
We need to make it clear to the media sources we consume, and to our friends that are not aware of RCP's tactics but still use them.
THIS HAS TO STOP.
12:08 PM PT: Two more polls in a SLEW of polls showing Obama ahead:
Florida O47, R45
http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/...
Colorado O46, R43
http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/...
Yet they race to post Rasmussen and Gravis polls.