Baseball expert instructs political media about use of polls

"Too often, (Nate) Silver told me, polls are used to provide a "veneer of science" to media narratives.

• Whether in baseball or politics, "the basic problem is that

• people misinterpret random events as being meaningful."

There simply isn't enough skepticism of polls, Silver said -- especially exit polls, which often miss the mark. That's why he believes journalists

• should avoid reporting that centers on polls;

when they do report the results of a poll, they should strive to place them in context with other surveys.

• They should, he said, "apply the same kind of fact-checking and balance to coverage of polls as they would to any other set of facts." reported on Poynter.org

Tweet Stumbleupon StumbleUpon