George Gallup Jr., Gallup Poll Founder's Son, Dies

[The Straight Story]

George Gallup Jr., Gallup Poll Founder's Son, Dies



Pollster George Gallup Jr. has died in New Jersey, a year after being diagnosed with liver cancer, his family said Wednesday. He was 81.

Gallup, the son of Gallup Poll founder George Gallup, died Monday in Princeton, where he lived, according to his family.

The younger Gallup was born in Evanston, Ill., in 1930 and joined the family's polling organization in 1954, a year after graduating from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in religion.

He remained an executive in the company until he retired in 2004. While there, he pushed the polling agency into conducting surveys on religion and the views of youth.

http://www.npr.org/2011/11/23/142734543/george-gallup-jr-gallup-poll-founders-son-dies

[bluestateguy]

1. Polling is not a reputable industry

I wish it had never been invented and if I had my way all pollsters would be out of business and flipping burgers.

[Hippo_Tron]

2. Polling is nothing more than conducting surveys to gauge public opinion

Polling is the inevitable result of the discovery of random sampling, something that is ubiquitous in most fields of modern research. The fact that polls are skewed to drive a story or serve an agenda isn't a reason to wish polling didn't exist. It's like saying that you wish the journalism industry didn't exist because of Fox News and the New York Post.