POLLS:...Wall Street Journal's Latest...Trump Paid For It...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Political polls have been and continue to be some sort of credible weathervane for candidate campaigns, especially in presidential races. They're always suspect, but, well, there they are. Broadcast and print news media outlets take them and run with the announced results.

But they also lie.

Take the one released this week by the Wall Street Journal (owned by FOX's Rupert Murdoch). It released poll numbers after conducting a survey that said President Joe Biden and Republican Donald J., Trump were tied when voters across the country were polled as to who they favored.

What the Wall Street Journal never said was that Trump had paid for the poll.

So much for that poll.

But it happens more often than not, and what Americans don't know is that these pollsters often survey a miniscule number of people, respondents in the low-hundreds not rare at all. That small of a looksee is really useless, but they keep doing it and the press keeps reporting results as if a huge number of voters had been asked the question.

This from newrepublic.com: [ A recent Wall Street Journal poll announced that most voters think Joe Biden is too old to be president for a second term - and a 2024 matchup between Biden and Donald Trump would be evenly split. The poll has since been covered across multiple mainstream media outlets, including MSNBC, CNN, and Fox.

There’s just one problem: The poll was conducted in part by Trump’s former campaign pollster.

The poll, which was published Monday, found that Biden and Trump are tied with 46 percent support each. It has garnered widespread media attention and outrage. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough pointed out that Trump has been indicted four times and lied many, many more times, and yet he is tied with Biden simply because the latter is just three years older.

What the Journal does not mention anywhere is that Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio also worked as the chief pollster on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. And since the start of 2023, Trump’s super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., has paid Fabrizio’s company more than $567,000, according to FEC filings. ]

Candidate paying for good publicity is nothing new. it happens at a much-smaller scale here in the Rio Grande Valley, especially in Brownsville, where bloggers often take sides in political contests for pay.

But the polling is part & parcel of our national politics.

Polls have been around seemingly forever in presidential races. And, yes, the results always depend on who is doing the poll and who is paying for it to be done.

Trump paying for this one is no surprise.

And he did get a nice big bang for his bucks, as pretty much every news outlet reported the favorable result he paid for...

-30-