PBS Online Poll?

[Amapola]

Has anyone else seen this online poll on PBS? Link.

It's asking if Sarah Palin is qualified to serve as VP of the USA. I just got it in an email from someone I don't know (but who still sends me forwarded garbage) with all these exhortations to go there and VOTE YES!!1!1!!! in large colored type.

Anyway, I wondered what brought all this on. The email claimed "the left wing knew about this in advance!" It made me wonder if anyone else has even heard of this poll. I couldn't find it mentioned here and it seems to me there are some really well informed people here.

We can't get television reception here, as I am way out in the sticks and don't have a satellite dish. I just wondered if this was on TV or something, and I missed it. Thanks.

 

[Ausmerican]

Maybe they assumed the left wing knew about it in advance because they have never watched PBS in their life and neither have any of the friends they asked.

 

[Sasha]

Strange - when I went to the site and clicked on See the Results, I got this message:

Your first vote for this poll has been registered. Any subsequent vote will not be counted. This is not a scientific poll.

But I didn't vote!

ETA: Okay, this explains it:

http://www.pbs.org/now/palin-poll.html

The poll asks the question, "Do you think that Sarah Palin is qualified to serve as Vice President of the United States?" The user answers clicks to answer "Yes" or "No." From September 5 to September 22, our software allowed online users to vote repeatedly. Sounds bad, right? But we at NOW had serious concerns about user privacy. "Cookies" are small text files placed on the user's system without that person's knowledge. Many computer users regard them as invasive.

Other possible fixes: we could have insisted on voters registering with their email addresses. But people could still vote several times using different email addresses. Or we could insist on a unique identifier - a user's social security number. This was clearly way over the line in violation of user privacy.

Read the whole page for the entire text.

 

[Cicero]

Strange - when I went to the site and clicked on See the Results, I got this message:

But I didn't vote!

ETA: Okay, this explains it:

http://www.pbs.org/now/palin-poll.html
Read the whole page for the entire text.

I thought after NOW got rid of the LBJ flunky Bill Moyers in 2004 they would have cleaned up their act. Now "NOW" is protecting voters from cookies? Please.

***..“The image of the left-wing bias of "NOW”—unchallenged by a balancing point of view on public broadcasting’s Friday evening lineup—was unhealthy. Indeed, it jeopardized essential support for public TV."..***
CPB Board Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson 2003

 

[dudalb]

There might be a more inaccurate , useless and worthless excercise than an On Line Poll, but I have yet to see anything more worthless.
According to all those on line polls last winter, Ron Paul should be on the verge of the biggest win in the history of US politics.