Unfortunately some do -- because Rasmussen is providing a certain kind polling results, that help keep a certain kind of Republican story-line rolling.
Rasmussen: The GOP’s cure for the common poll
by Aaron Blake, WashingtonPost.com -- Sep 17, 2012
[...]
Rasmussen’s prolific polling service, Rasmussen Reports, has long been a bone of contention in the political world (for more, see Jason Horowitz’s great 2010 profile). Essentially, Democrats think Rasmussen is a thinly veiled partisan (Republican) pollster, some reporters and media organizations refuse to use his polls (which are conducted via an automated method that doesn’t include cellphones) and others (including The Fix) report the results with caveats.
Mitt Romney’s campaign and its allies, though, are apparently huge fans.
Even as other pollsters -- Gallup, Fox News, CBS News/New York Times, Washington Post/ABC News -- have shown the presidential race tilting toward President Obama in recent days, Romney aides and allied Republicans proudly tout the newest Rasmussen numbers, which show their guy actually holding a very small lead: 47 percent to 45 percent.
[...]
And Rasmussen had yet another stunning news flash today. The Romney cheerleaders at Fox News were all over it too. Even their special guest
Scott Rasmussen, tried to curb their enthusiasm. But the Fox-casters were having none of it.
Rasmussen polls: Mitt Romney leads President Obama 50 to 46%
by Sahit Muja, examiner.com -- Oct 27, 2012
[...]
The Rasmussen Reports daily presidential tracking poll for Saturday shows Mitt Romney attracting support from 50% of voters nationwide, while President Obama earns the vote from 46%. Two percent (1%) prefer some other candidate, and another two percent (2%) are undecided. This is the fifth consecutive day that Romney has been at the 50% level of support. He has enjoyed a three- or four-point edge on each of those days. See daily tracking history.
[...]
They were getting ready to open the champagne at that 50% News, even as Mr Rasmussen tried to caution them about the Electoral College, and that it was still favoring Obama by a significant amount ...
The happy shiny spinners were having none of it.
Watching that episode of "Romney has breathing room now, Yeah!" -- it got me thinking: How biased is a Rasmussen Poll? And can they really be trusted?
After a little searching here is what I found out, from someone who knows a thing or two about the polling ...
Rasmussen Polls Were Biased and Inaccurate; Quinnipiac, SurveyUSA Performed Strongly
by Nate Silver, fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com -- Nov 4, 2010
[...]
The 105 polls released in Senate and gubernatorial races by Rasmussen Reports and its subsidiary, Pulse Opinion Research, missed the final margin between the candidates by 5.8 points, a considerably higher figure than that achieved by most other pollsters. Some 13 of its polls missed by 10 or more points, including one in the Hawaii Senate race that missed the final margin between the candidates by 40 points, the largest error ever recorded in a general election in FiveThirtyEight’s database, which includes all polls conducted since 1998.
Moreover, Rasmussen’s polls were quite biased, overestimating the standing of the Republican candidate by almost 4 points on average. In just 12 cases, Rasmussen’s polls overestimated the margin for the Democrat by 3 or more points. But it did so for the Republican candidate in 55 cases -- that is, in more than half of the polls that it issued.
[...]
Rasmussen’s polls have come under heavy criticism throughout this election cycle, including from FiveThirtyEight. We have critiqued the firm for its cavalier attitude toward polling convention. Rasmussen, for instance, generally conducts all of its interviews during a single, 4-hour window; speaks with the first person it reaches on the phone rather than using a random selection process; does not call cellphones; does not call back respondents whom it misses initially; and uses a computer script rather than live interviewers to conduct its surveys. These are cost-saving measures which contribute to very low response rates and may lead to biased samples.
[...]
Given Rasmussen flawed methodology, their horrendous track record, and their built-in bias to favor Republican Candidates, in a majority of their polls,
-- it should be easy to see why one mustn't trust Rasmussen.
Only a say-anything Candidate, being promoted on a say-anything Network, would ever do that. But hey, who needs actual Science anyways, when you've got a boatload of stories to sell the public instead?