It was an ordinary Thursday evening, just after six when the phone rang. My husband answered it and seemed a little annoyed, then handed the phone to me. We've been on the "Do Not Call" lists for some time and he thought this was someone who got through anyway, someone trying to sell something. But it turned out that he was wrong.
Or was he?
When I took the call, I was told that the person on the line was conducting a short survey that would only take a few moments of my time. Before I could object, he was asking me questions, some of which I didn't answer because I had no opinion or because I knew little about the person or event he was asking about.
I was asked about elected officials from Gov. George Pataki right down to our newly elected mayor of Niagara Falls, Vince Anello. He asked about state Sen. George Maziarz and Assemblywoman Francine Del Monte. Did I feel favorable or unfavorable about them, or something like that.
He asked what I thought was the most important issue facing Niagara Falls, what the impact of the casino was, and how I thought revenue from the casino should be used. I remember answering a question about taking up the parkway between Lewiston and Niagara Falls.
All of these questions, I thought, were not out of the ordinary. They belonged on the list of good questions to include on a local poll.
But then, out of the blue, I was asked if I thought that the reporting in the Niagara Falls Reporter was reputable. What has the Reporter got to do with this poll? I guess I exploded and immediately told him that I write for the paper.
I write reviews -- art, theater, book, movie, video reviews. However, that didn't seem to matter to him in the least. I asked him who he was working for and got no answer. He said he didn't really know; he was only the pollster who was conducting the poll.
I grew even angrier and quoted a friend from Buffalo who reads the Reporter at Starbucks. "The Reporter," my friend said, "is the best-written paper in Western New York, and it's what the First Amendment is all about."
Though I don't always agree with my friend, I do in this instance. We need a paper that is willing to state its mind in an age when dissent is labeled unpatriotic. We need involved, passionate reporters, who do know what they're doing, who are excellent, even prize-winning, investigative journalists.
Whoever was conducting that poll had some kind of an agenda, and from the way the question was phrased, I think they were probably hoping to discredit the Reporter in some way. After all, I wasn't asked whether I thought the Niagara Gazette was "reputable." The incident caused me to wonder how much faith we should place in polls when it all comes down to who is conducting the poll in the first place.
It's like when Bill O'Reilly brings on someone from a conservative "think tank" to answer his "fair and balanced" questions about the anti-war protesters in England. The conservative labeled the protesters crazies. I'm sure the conservative think tank expert would have labeled all those men dressed as Indians throwing tea into the Boston harbor crazies too.
Yes, those that designed that poll had some kind of agenda.
I think my husband had it right all along. They were trying to sell us something.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | November 25 2003 |