Hijexx wrote:
] What are some specific reasons you do not like Zogby?

- I've never heard of him from any source I trust.

- A brief glance at his website seems (to me) to indicate a lot of self-promotion. For all I know, a good portion of it is made up. The stuff about him, the stuff about his organization, all of it.

- And if he's making up stuff about himself, chances are pretty good that the poll data may be fabricated as well.

- The "Want to know what REAL PEOPLE are thinking?" motto raises a red flag for me. It implies that other polls are fabricated data. It has a conspiracy-theorist ring to it.

- Other flags are phrases like, "This poll is the first of its kind that surveys American attitudes". It is?

- "49% of New Yorkers feel". Excuse me? They surveyed 49% of the entire population of New York City? No, it's 49% of the 1000 that took the survey.

- There's also lots of other emotional language in the so-called "press release" that doesn't sound like a legitimate polling organization to me. In my opinion, a valid polling company is going to bend over backwards to present the data without emotion. Also, the people that are quoted in the press release are also from organizations I don't have any experience or trust in, so their quotes don't have any weight with me either.

- I guess I've just run into enough crazies on the web, that my antennae are waving. I've seen some people who know how to make a really excellent website, that's completely filled with pseudo-raving. But just because it looks like an official news-magazine or a real organization, doesn't mean it's been fact-checked or has any credibility. And a poll of "1000 New Yorkers" doesn't necessarily mean a random sample. It could mean 1000 people that subscribe to his newsletter, or 1000 people who were visiting his site. Which is *definitely* not a random sampling. :) And if that's the case, then it would be even less worthy of a "press release" announcement.

Note, I'm not saying that he *did* do this. But the "poll is bunk" link reinforces my suspicion, and a lot of other stuff on the site just smells wrong to me.

Then again, it may well have been a real poll, with real random sampling, and the man who cried wolf really *did* see a wolf this time. But if that's the case, then other independent pollsters will find similar data.

For more info on Zogby, try searching on "Zogby and credibility". There's some interesting info there.

And keep up the good fight. You're asking the right questions. :)

RE: Half of New Yorkers Believe US Leaders Had Foreknowledge of Impending 9-11 Attacks and “Consciously Failed” To Act