Healthcare Polling and the Media

As we have discussed in the last several units in class, the media has an opportunity unlike most other outlets in the country to make the results of a poll or a survey appear however they would like it to appear. By the focus, intensity, or attitude of their article or segment, they can change or effect how people look at the results that the poll comes to.

With the issue of health care reform, the different media outlets are able to make the results of various polls appear however they want them to appear, no matter how ethical or unethical it may be. For example, networks or publications that lean to the left like MSNBC, CNN, or most major newspapers in America tend to cite more surveys that show that more Americans support President Obama's form of health care reform that that they are in favor of the public option.

Similarly, networks like Fox News and most radio programs and newspapers like the Wall Street journal's surveys that they cite show the exact opposite: that most Americans are not in favor of the health care proposals.

The problem with this is that most of these news outlets do not show what organizations put together these polls if they are not done by Rasmussen or Gallup, nor do they really show what kind of people are interviewed, which is where the problem lies. In order to do their job properly, all the facts need to be shown about who is conducting the survey, who is being asked, and why it is being done.