YESTERDAY’S Gallup Poll results proved the truth once again: Polls are about as real as Burt Reynolds’ latest facelift.
No? Remember the 2004 presidential election exit polls – the ones that predicted a Kerry landslide? Exactly.
Yesterday’s poll was more important, however, than merely predicting the next ruler of the free world. It surveyed 1,001 adults on the likability of 17 “television news and talk personalities.”
Right off, there’s a glaring “personality” omission: Oprah.
She’s not even included, which begs the question of whether Oprah would have beat the blond out of Diane Sawyer, who was voted the most likable TV personality. Are you kidding?
So how relevant is a poll of TV personalities without the world’s most popular woman?
But what’s worse than not including Oprah is the fact that Star Jones, who is included, is the only African-American on the list. And what with her 70 percent unfavorable score, she’d have been better off if she hadn’t been the token.
In other interesting results, Dan Rather – who got kicked to the curb – got a 73 percent approval rating, while America’s sweetheart, Katie Couric, got a 72 percent. Or Dan: zero, Katie: $65 million.
Mind you, Dan beat out Katie after the 50 bazillion bad stories by us self-righteous newshounds.
So how do you interpret that data?
Probably that the opinions expressed by the news media do not reflect the opinions of regular people.
Or maybe it’s that our opinions are about as close to reality as poll results.