Watching CNN tonight, I am struck by how journalistically unethical it is for this network to be trumpeting so-called "entrance polls" (aka. scattered polls of people walking into the caucuses) - at the very moment the Iowa caucus voting is actually happening. Here you have a process that is so open for public viewing that national cable news cameras are allowed to broadcast them live to the planet. And that network - throwing journalism ethics to the wind - is citing straw polls of voters walking into the caucuses as a way to predict the voting, before the voting has actually taken place.
This is far worse than broadcasting results from eastern states before western states polls close. This is broadcasting numbers that seem like results BEFORE the voting has even concluded. It is not a stretch to think that such speculation will bleed into the caucus meetings taking place, potentially manipulating voting outcomes.
If, say, you are in a caucus meeting and hear that CNN is saying your candidate is going to lose based on "entrance polls" perhaps you aren't going to vote for your candidate anymore, not wanting to back a supposed loser. In other words, the media's desperation to create storylines has the very real possibility of creating self-fulfilling predictions. National political reporters go on television essentially predicting winners and losers based on "entrance polls," that news gets into caucuses going on, thus helping to create those very winners and losers.
I wish I was surprised, but I'm not. After all, as Matt Yglesias notes, NBC's Tim Russert and Chris Matthews have already decided that John McCain is the big story coming out of Iowa - even before a single caucus has been held.
Welcome to the supposed "greatest democracy on earth."
Obama wins a well fought victory and instead of us joining together, the knives come out.
I would like to say that I don't know why people seem so angry, but I know that part of the anger driving people is the color of the winner's skin.
I'm not going to comment on whether such racism is right or wrong, but I will say, very clearly, that such bigoted opinions will result in a Republican occupying the white house for four more years.
Eh, who am I kidding? Obama has the election on lock!
Barack Obama. President. 2008.
The US democratic process is based on legalised bribery in the form of 'campaign contributions' in which the candidate enters into a pact with the donor to enact legislation to the donor as quid pro quo for the donation.
The will of the people means practically nothing to US politicians as the incumbent, however 'bent' he/she is, invariably wins...and the people's will certainly counts for less than the bribes donated by big corporations who are the real policy and decision makers.
What America has is faux democracy...the vote for one of two parties that are idealogically indistinguishable in maintaining the power in the hands of US corporations...what is most important is the 'club' which governs keeps its collective nose in the public trough.
The situation has worsened considerably under Bush, insofar as even the pretense of transparency of government has been eliminated. Governments, administrations and or people that are not subject to oversight in a transparent way, inevitably abuse their power and their poorly educated citizens.
Talk about disenfranchisement. Our millitary personel serving overseas cannot vote in the caucus. The vote is not secret ballot. Voters get a second chance if their first choice is a loser.
Entrance polls are the least of the problems with the Iowa Caucus.