It's just one more demonstration why obsession on polls is a terrible mistake for news organizations to make. Increasingly over the years, the reporting on polls by news organizations has become the dominant driver of news coverage. It masks (or tries to) the fact that no real reporting is going on. A reporter or columnist can sit back at his desk and write stories based on polls and never set foot on the ground where the real news is happening. It's one thing to use polls to advise you what to look for. It's another to make them the news. Hire more real reporters and get them out there pounding their beat. And the beat isn't a poll.
It's just one more demonstration why obsession on polls is a terrible mistake for news organizations to make. Increasingly over the years, the reporting on polls by news organizations has become the dominant driver of news coverage. It masks (or tries to) the fact that no real reporting is going on. A reporter or columnist can sit back at his desk and write stories based on polls and never set foot on the ground where the real news is happening. It's one thing to use polls to advise you what to look for. It's another to make them the news. Hire more real reporters and get them out there pounding their beat. And the beat isn't a poll.