“Political Polling’s Unfavorables Are on the Rise”
By: David A. Graham
This article reports that Gallup is no longer polling on the presidential primaries or general elections after how wrong they were on the last one. The article goes on to state that media reports junk polls without adequate scrutiny. That is something I agree with, when researching for my “hot topic” I read that most news outlets want to report the most drastic news, not always the most predictable (which may be way more reliable).
“Horse Race Coverage & the Political Spectacle”
by: Matthew C. Nisbet
Over the past forty years, there has been a rise in horse race journalism. In the 2007 presidential primary coverage it was found that this type of reporting was accounted for 63% of print and TV stories analyzed. Patterson fears that the focus on the game over substance undermines the ability of citizens to learn from coverage and to reach informed decisions in elections or about policy debates. Personally, I find it dangerous how much polling is reported on, as polling is not always accurate. But, I feel like people should be allowed to report it. Audiences should not take the results too seriously.
Class did not change my mind much, I thought polling was dangerous before, and still agree it is dangerous now. With how unreliable polling can be, it sucks that to get on the stage for the republican party, you must be in the top of the polls.
I did learn about Citizens United. In 2010 there was a case brought to the SCOTUS Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. This was a case based on the regulation of campaign spending by organizations. The Supreme Court decided that the First Amendment prohibited the government from restricting independent political expenditures by a nonprofit corporation, for-profit corporations, labor unions, and oter associations.