Opinion

The worst mainstream media habit: Distorting polls for clicks

By now, my readers know full well what I think of national polls taken nearly seven months before the election: They are worse than meaningless. Pervasive polling obsession winds up misinforming (and freaking out) voters while crowding out the essential aspects of a historic campaign.

For starters, constant polling hype frames the election as a horse race, devoid of moral or policy outcomes. Premature polling distracts us from what is critical and central — four-times indicted former president Donald Trump’s unprecedented attack on democracy. (When you want to “suspend” the Constitution, use a putsch to overturn the will of the voters, unleash the military on civilians and weaponize the Justice Department, you are pining to undermine democracy and turn America into something resembling Viktor Orban’s Hungary.)