Manipulator of crowds, you’re a dream twister. Actually, strikes me as a guy who doesn’t take the whole thing too seriously, which is probably wise. Don’t think twice, it’s all right, jokerman. I have to thank one of his recent columns for prompting me to have a big REM session.

I agree the ABC would be more likely to do the story but their self-interest and the commercials are aligned on this one. In fact, they may have more invested, as an organisation, since they do alot more talking head politcal class chattery.

It would be a cracker though.

The Mumble link is here.

He said the unions were “making Rudd’s job tougher”, I asked what the evidence of that was in terms of real peoples’ percetions (not just neg media coverage). He said some Labor MPs in the cafateria at Parl Haus told him so. I said that wasn’t very good evidence on the actual views of the electorate and the affect of those views if any on voting intentions. He said that was “a lot of blah” and I should “go to university and get a PhD” if I wanted those questions answered. HA!

My naive notions of the serious media devoted to keeping the public informed of the imporrtant issues, beyond the tired generalisations, has been dashed! Crushing!

http://www.galaxyresearch.com.au/contact.html
Initial enquiries should be made to either
Chris Lonergan, Rob Keller or Kylie Newcombe.

Phone: 02 8572 6800
Fax: 02 8572 6820

Galaxy Research
1-3 Derwent St
GLEBE NSW 2037

Just up the road from me, I could pop over in my lunch break.

Why wouldn’t you trust such wacky funsters?

But really, I think there’s too much self-interest at stake for anyone in the media to have a hard look at the poll fetish. How would they know what to talk about otherwise? The talking heads have the poll two-step down pat : note sagely that we should take polls with a pich of salt, then talk sagely as if this morning’s was genuinely important.

These Galaxy polls – and their presentation (rather, insinuation) into public discourse – were too cute by half.

Getting personal, the boss of the Galaxy Poll business was interviewed albeit briefly on television recently and, looking at him, the word trust didn’t immediately come to mind.

But what a temptation that business must be. Release results which alter public discourse and steer the whole thing in a new direction, over new ground, repairing against pitfalls – surely the effects of all of that has a dollar value?

And given the position the LNP were in, what price a Galaxy Poll (released in The Telegraph for goodness sake – think trust?) to create those effects just when needed. What price for that?

Cynical? You bet. And speaking of betting – which is no distant cousin to this polling thing – it’s not as if there’s cause to rely on a squeaky clean history in that regard. No, it’s just common sense to want to peel open the polling can of worms and see what’s cooking.