You Know That AP-GfK Poll I Cited Showing Obama Losing Independents? Yeah, About That

This isn't my screw-up, really-- I didn't take an old poll, fail to check the date, and post on it.

The AP did. I (and a lot of other people) cited the AP's story on Obama losing Independents yesterday. Like the Hill, and, citing the Hill, Instapundit.

But the AP... was citing a June 9-14 poll as if it were new. And actually, it included results from previous months, too.

When I saw a shorter, earlier version of the referenced AP report this morning, it didn't mention when AP's polling arm AP-GfK Roper had done their work. When I went to the polling home page and found that the most recent entries were from June 9-14, I figured I'd come back later and give the group time to post fresh underlying details.

Little did I know that AP's gaggle of writers were treating the June 9-14 "Poll Politics Topline" as fresh. It gets worse. It turns out that Fram, Tompson et al wasted about 875 words on a report based on polling data that gave equal weights to results from mid-June, mid-May, and mid-April.

So that's the AP's idea of rigorous fact-checking and up-to-the-minute newsworthy reportage.

So, that whole poll? Yeah, it's gotten worse since then.

I know this isn't really super-important on its own but since I quoted that poll I thought I'd better put this up prominently.

posted by Ace at 02:43 PM

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