Pink Slipped Pollster (Luntz blames Brock)

[kskiska]

(Item in Kurtz Column)

Pink-Slipped Pollster

Pollster Frank Luntz is crying foul after MSNBC canceled his long-scheduled focus group two days before the debate. Luntz, who is under contract to MSNBC, had already spent $30,000 on recruits for several focus groups and invited reporters in Florida to watch -- only to be told that the network didn't want to declare a winner in the debate.

"I think they buckled to political pressure," says Luntz, who has advised Republicans from Newt Gingrich to Rudy Giuliani but says he's done no GOP work since 2001. "They caved. . . . Why is it that Democrats are allowed to do this" after leaving politics, "but Republicans aren't?"

But MSNBC spokesman Jeremy Gaines says: "We made a decision not to use focus groups as part of our debate coverage. This decision had nothing to do with Frank's past work or politics. We think our viewers should be able to make up their own minds without 'scientific' help" -- despite the fact that the network has prominently featured Luntz and his on-air focus groups for four years.

…Some NBC executives find him extremely fair but believe his longtime GOP links create a perception problem.

"For me, nothing is more important than getting it right," Luntz says. He says MSNBC bowed to pressure from conservative-turned-liberal activist David Brock in dumping him and that the network hasn't even agreed to use him as an analyst -- sans focus groups -- in this week's debates.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4636-2004Oct3.html

[Cha]

1. Yeah, right!

Bullshit, frank!

[antonialee839]

22. Anybody who can google

knows just how sincere Frank Luntz really is about getting it "right". In 1997, Luntz was formally reprimanded by the American Association for Public Opinion Research for his work polling on the GOP's 1994 "Contract with America" campaign document.

For more info just google the words Frank Luntz reprimanded.

[Carla in Ca]

32. Booo Hooo Frank!

[SoCalDem]

2. Hahha the "Doughboy got baked "

I hate that bastard..

[ailsagirl]

3. Go Brock!!!

Thank God for Brock!! Sounds as if he wields a fair amount of influence. His website is terrific.

ailsa

[Arugula Latte]

30. Welcome to DU ailsagirl!

:hi: :toast:

[gmoney]

4. Tell it to Phil Donahue, Frankie...

Right wing crybabies...

[Isere]

20. Oh, Amen, baby!

Tell it to Phil!


Hehhehehehehe!

[The Magistrate]

5. It Amazes Me Luntz Can Find Work Outside A McDonald's Counter At All

He is known to have made up poll findings out of whole cloth....

"LET'S GO GET THOSE BUSH BASTARDS!"

[mark0rama]

6. Luntz blames Brock. I credit Brock. (nt)

[BootinUp]

7. cry me a river.....

[Infomaniac]

8. My, oh my! The job losses under this Administration are just staggering.

I hope some more "folks" get pink slipped on November 2nd.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

9. We will, we will Brock you!

I love his appearances on the Al Franken Show. Whatta mensch.

[Doosh]

10. wasn't his results favorable to us?

perhaps we should've had him on? I always thought he was pretty fair.

[tishaLA]

11. I missed Frankie's rug this week

and his sexy sweater vests, too!

Frankie say "Relax! Don't do it!"

[featherman]

12. Luntz has been running this shtick for too many years as it is

I am turning handstands that this creep (a full time, hard core GOP operative) and his "focus groups" are gone but wonder why they let the charade go for as long as they did. Too late for Al Gore. Appalling!

[demoman123]

13. Frank Luntz was also an advisor to the Likud Party and Bibi Netanyahu

" Greenberg and Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster who has worked for Netanyahu and Israel's minister of housing and construction, Natan Sharansky, have been diverted to another Israel project.

The two are backing a media campaign in America to promote Israel's democratic values and peacemaking efforts. Sources say that both men fear that partisan involvement in Israel's election would jeopardize the public relations effort."

--Jewish Bulletin of North America

http://www.jewishsf.com/bk030117/us21.shtml

[DrBB]

14. Hey, and it cost him money too, huh?

I don't suppose that $30,000 came out of his own checking account, but still, I'm glad he spent it and has nothing to show for it.

[Rose Siding]

15. MSNBC could be treating us to some political vaudeville here

They are suddenly worried about "perception"? Please. They think pairing Buchanan with Press is balanced! Press is cool but third-party-Pat's more balanced foil would be Mike Malloy or Jesse Jackson.

They *cancelled* the highest rated Donahue and hired Savage. Period.

Now they have Olberman, who is certainly no raving lefty to counter Scarborough, the schitzo Matthews and a bunch of GOP talking-point swilling news-readers.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

16. Gee, you seemed to have no problem when the ousted Donahue.

:eyes:

:nopity:

[stevedeshazer]

17. Punked by David Brock!

How great is that?

See ya later, I must go make an offering to the Goddess of Irony right now....

[PROGRESSIVE1]

18. Wayne Morse is the model of a STATESMAN, GENTLEMAN, AND PATRIOT!

[stevedeshazer]

21. Yes, he is my political hero

He helped get me involved in politics at age thirteen. We both raised the same breed of cattle at the time (Devons).

We need more Wayne Morses. A lot more. :)

[gumby]

19. Why don't these neo-nuts take any personal responsibility?

Goodness! Why does Looney Luntz have to blame his incompetence on someone else? Why doesn't he take personal responsibility and just go find another job?

Really! These right-wingers are just a bunch of sniveling, "somebody should give me a job" socialists. Does Luntz think he can suck the teat of corporate welfare forever?

I'm sure one of his focus groups will tell him how wondrous the economy is, so he should see his situation as a bonus to expand his horizons. He can ask Rush if he's got any questions about the personal responsibility of getting another job.

[proud patriot]

23. Wheeeeee !

LOL :D

[Kimber Scott]

24. I like the idea of making up MY OWN MIND without 'scientific' help.

Good call, MSNBC.

[AP]

25. Brock's letter to MSNBC:

Based on your channel's programming and editorial decisions during the 2000 presidential debates, I anticipate you are considering featuring Republican pollster Frank Luntz, CEO and president of Luntz Research Companies, as part of the network's analysis of this year's presidential debates. I'm writing to ask that, if you have already chosen to include Luntz as part of your coverage, you reconsider that decision in light of Luntz's partisan Republican ties and history of questionable scientific methodology. If Luntz must be a part of MSNBC's lineup, I would expect that its viewers will be informed of these facts on-air.


As Salon.com reported in 2000, there is little reason to trust a poll taken by Frank Luntz, who was reprimanded in 1997 by the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) for his work polling for the Republican Party's 1994 "Contract with America" campaign platform. According to Salon.com: "Luntz told the media that everything in the contract had the support of at least 60 percent of the general public," but when a member of the AAPOR "filed a complaint requesting to see Luntz's research and verification of the figure," Luntz refused, citing "client confidentiality." Salon.com described Luntz as "possibly the best example of what we could call the pollster pundit: someone who both purports to scientifically poll the opinions of the public, and then also interpret that data to support his own -- in Luntz's case, conservative -- point of view." Salon.com added that, according to David W. Moore, author of the book The Super Pollsters, Luntz's work is little more than "propaganda" disguised as research. Luntz has explained his own methodology as follows: "Say you poll on an environmental issue, and on eight of the 10 questions the numbers are in your favor. Why release the other two? It's like being a lawyer."


I sincerely hope your channel will not repeat the mistakes made during its coverage of the 2004 Democratic and Republican National Conventions, when MSNBC anchors and commentators failed to even once mention Luntz's partisan Republican ties or questionable polling standards during three appearances in which he touted flawed focus groups.


Though the overall results of Luntz's convention studies were not overtly in favor of either presidential candidate, three of his four focus groups were institutionally biased toward President George W. Bush. One Luntz focus group held during the DNC compared the views of Gore 2000 voters to Bush 2000 voters. Yet in three other groups (one during the DNC and two during the RNC) Luntz compared Republicans' reactions to speeches to the combined reactions of Democrats and Independents and then wrongly labeled the groups as "Republicans" and "Democrats" during his September 2 appearance on MSNBC.

...

http://mediamatters.org/items/200409280002

[FredScuttle]

26. Pugsley complaining that MSNBC isn't using him as an analyst?

Gary Coleman has as much credibility covering the debates as that GOP shill.

[oasis]

27. If Brock has a favorite brand of whiskey I'm for sending him a case.

:bounce: He's due for some props since his "Blinded By the Right" got the cold shoulder from the media.

[FizzFuzz]

41. I love David Brock!

That book and Palast's were the first two political books I read and boy did they open my eyes. I mean I knew McChimp was bad news even before the s-election, (I'm not sure how I knew that so early on, I wasn't paying heavy attention.....maybe it was cuz I knew that anyone supported by Rush Limbag must be completely horrible), but those books got me started.

Yay for David Brock!!! His book also impressed me for its admitting and making amends for his uglier deeds, in his "previous life" That's respectworthy, in my book.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

28. See Frank..Repubs cost jobs :)

[oasis]

31. I'm wondering if his state-of-the-art studio polling gizmo will be offered

on E-bay. Luntz may donate it to the Smithsonian.

[Arugula Latte]

29. "I've Got The Pow-ah!"

All right! This is great. FINALLY liberals wield a little influence on the media. It's high time. I'm sick of the rightwing nutjobs calling all the shots. (Cancelled "Reagans" series, etc. etc.)

[Norquist Nemesis]

33. "done no GOP work since 2001"

Bullshit!!! He's been doing the the work for them all along and getting paid by MSNBC for it!

Poor baby. I'm glad to see MSNBC made this decision.

And as to his accusation that "Democrats do it" (besides the fact that this accusation just brings his bias to light), I'd sure like to know who they are.

[tom_paine]

34. Listen to Orwell cry. Give him just a TINY taste of the medicine THEY

have been practicing, and he cries.

Of course, that's just his Orwell telling him to "put it out there, just keep putting it out there".

Busheviks have been doing this for at least 10 years, but it's gotten particularly Totalitarian these last few years. Yet he still has the NERVE and desire to "get that lie out there" that this is some terrible thing and that CBS Raygun series and the Dixie Chicks never fucking happened!

[KT2000]

35. Brock is doing good work

good riddance Luntz

[MADem]

36. I have written several letters

to NBC and MSNBC about Luntz, well before Brock ever brought it up. Did they get any response? Nyet. I did not ask that Luntz be fired, even though I agree with the posters who dislike him (me, too). I only asked that they IDENTIFY him as a GOP pollster so that viewers could take his assessments with a grain of salt, or alternate him or pair him with a DEMOCRATIC pollster.

Now Luntz is whining....there seems to be an awful lot of whining going on in GOP circles of late. It's rather ... unattractive. I'd even go so far as to say it sends the wrong message to our troops. There's no WHINING in boot camp, there's no WHINING on the battlefield, there certainly shouldn't be any WHINING in the White House...!

[DeepModem Mom]

37. The next pink slip should have AEI Schneider's name on it --

[Justice]

38. Brock shows us that we can make a difference

It is heartening to see that we can make a difference by making our views known, and by making the truth known.

[robbedvoter]

39. Glad he trumpets his objectivity - we were wrong then?

[Chelsea Patriot]

40. Luntz! You can move up to a more respectable job-Making Anal Fuck Flix!

[robbedvoter]

42. MSNBC skewed focus groups without Luntz (NO DEMOCRATS)

From Brock's Media Matters:


NBC/MSNBC: Four registered Republicans, one independent, no Democrats

A focus group conducted in Florida and broadcast on both NBC and MSNBC featured four registered Republicans, one independent, and no registered Democrats, NBC News White House correspondent Norah O'Donnell reported on Hardball with Chris Matthews October 1. According to O'Donnell, "hree of them had voted for President Bush in the last election, one for Al Gore and one didn't vote." Like the USA Today group, despite the unbalanced nature of the MSNBC study, O'Donnell's summation of the findings showed a shift towards Kerry: "wo undecideds who say they will now vote for Kerry, but the others remain on the fence."

O'Donnell first reported the focus group's findings on NBC's Today show earlier on October 1. On that program, while she mentioned how the members of the group had voted in 2000, she neglected to mention their party registration.

[PurityOfEssence]

43. Nothing is more important than getting it far right.

How dare they not let me skew it.

[w4rma]

44. Kurtz again. Trying to drum up sympathy for his GOP buddy. (nt)