The push polls keep coming

I thought with the election over that I would no longer be subject to push polls.

Last night proved me wrong. I was push polled by none other than Mike Huckabee, who introduced himself on the phone as the former Governor of Arkansas rather than a talk show host (current job) or recent GOP candidate for President.

The topic: potential federal regulation and possible funding of family planning agencies--or at least, that's how the poll began. The introduction included a claim that President-elect Obama has promised to provide certain sorts of federal funding to various agencies, among them Planned Parenthood. I have no idea if this claim is in any way true.

However, it didn't take more than a couple of questions for the real issue to become clear: abortion. I was asked whether I agreed with statues that would require those under 18 to obtain parental consent before obtaining an abortion. I was asked whether I agree with statutes that would prohibit what the anti-abortion movement has erroneously labeled partial-birth abortions. In all, I was asked about 20 questions on various aspects of the issue--each questioned framed as a "yes" or "no" response and many including erroneous or unsubstantiated assertions.

What's wrong here. There are at least a couple of things. First, Huckabee doesn't really want my opinion. In fact, he was a recording. I have no idea what was "done" with my opinion, because I was never told. This is deceptive. As a citizen, I should know why I'm being polled. Second, the questions should at least adhere to the facts. In the best of all possible worlds, they should include context. And, they certainly should provide me with more options than "yes" or "no". For example, I should be able to tell my supposed questioner that young women who are the victims on incest--and I wrote those stories as a police reporter--should not have to obtain permission from their molester to obtain an abortion. But, there was no place for that sort of thinking, logic or dialog in this supposed search for my opinion.

But, as a journalist, this poll gives me another sort of clue. There's a story here. What group in Missouri is planning what sort of political initiative? How are those who answer in a way the "pollster" deems appropriate being placed on mailing lists, fund raising lists, and in other sorts of political support groups? Who paid for this "poll"?

As much attention as we give to the internet, we also need to remember that the telephone--after the front porch and the back fence--remains an important social networking tool. I also think it remains just as newsworthy.