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02/14/2008
'Pro-family' survey: Data, schmata -- just trust us
You know what's HIGHLY irresponsible? Issuing a press release claiming that you've conducted a survey that backs up your cause, yet failing to provide any info about the methodology behind your study. Yet that is exactly what the so-called Pennsylvania For Marriage coalition is currently doing. Back on the 4th of this month, the organization sent out a press release that reads in part:
A recent survey indicates that 70 percent of Pennsylvanians believe that now is the time for our legislators to deal with the issue of same-sex marriage.
Furthermore, the survey indicated that 72 percent wants voters -- not the courts -- to have the final say on whether marriage remains defined as one man and one woman in the Commonwealth.
And then at the bottom of the release, they say that one can go to the organization's website in order to get more information. However, we have spent almost an hour scouring the site, and they're not even a mention of the survey, much less a pdf document of the data or SOMETHING to back up their claims. We don't know why, how, or who these activists-cum-pollsters questioned in order to achieve their results. The organization, whose every ounce of work is designed to get a marriage amendment passed in the Keystone State, is just asking readers to swallow their data as fact!
But you know what's even more irresponsible than the fact that an activist group released this data? Well, that "pro-family" journalists don't feel they have any responsibility to dig into the survey themselves. Here, look at how Focus on the Family's CitizenLink is currently presenting these same results:
They have regurgitated the press release, and have not even given lip service to where the data came from. Now, call us reality-based fact-lovers who enjoy accurate representation if you must, but when we see survey data presented to us, we wanna know a few things. Like, say, WHO is being used to represent an entire state's population. And, maybe, HOW they were contacted. Without this sort of information, these numbers are just as useless as the discriminatory bans that they purportedly support!
Pennsylvanians Say Now is the Time for Marriage Amendment [Christian NewsWire]
Pennsylvania Marriage Amendment Poll Supports Vote [FOF CitizenLink]
**We've contacted Ms. Hamilton to get the supporting data. We'll let you know if she responds
Your thoughts
uhhhg data without this kind of info is SO useless and clearly being used irresponsibly.
Posted by: Jeff | Feb 14, 2008 4:48:14 PM
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