Lies, damned lies, statistics, and Michael Medved

Dear Michael,

The 7/17/12 show was a marked improvement over the day before.  It was good to see you mention the issues with the McClatchy/Marist polls, and how it differs with with another poll on the same subject.  For some, you are the only source of information they have, and it's good to see you tried set the record straight.  

But then, you could resist, could you?

Michael Medved:  Here's a poll that was taken earlier this month, and they said, "Do you think raising taxes on income over $250,000 would help the economy, hurt the economy, or not make a difference?"  Well, 48% thought it would either make no difference or hurt the economy.  44% said it would help.  So, it shows a much more close divide.

Michael, you know that your statistical breakdown was misleading.  And your opinion of how close the divide was just plain dishonest.  How do I know that?

The results of the poll were linked in my previous message to you.  The poll broke down like this:

Hurt the economy:  22%
Help the economy:  44%
No difference:  24%

You said, "48% thought it would either make no difference or hurt the economy.  44% said it would help."

You could have also said, "68% thought it would either make no difference or help the economy.  22% said it would hurt."

But you didn't say that.  You could have also just said the individual numbers, and let people make up their minds.  But you didn't do that, either.  Instead, you lumped together two numbers to make it look more evenly split.  

How do you defend that?

Roland Lindsey
Bellevue, WA