File Under 'S' For Satire
A poll conducted jointly by the New York Times and National Public Radio shows President George Bush losing to John Kerry, with 56% of the respondents saying that would vote for Kerry and 44% for Bush. The most interesting angle of the poll is that it was conducted among Republicans.
"These results clearly show that Bush is losing support among his base", said NPR spokesman Margaret Jorgenson-Martinez.
Joshua Daniel Davidson of the Times agreed, "The war in Iraq, the jobs situation, and the ballooning deficit have all contributed to cause people who have voted Republican for years to decide that they will not vote for Bush come November. And this dissatisfaction with Bush crosses over all groups that form the Republican core. Evangelicals, fiscal conservatives, supply siders, war hawks, the family values crowd. You name it. They're ready for change."
The sample size of the poll was nine people randomly interviewed on the street in the small town of Keisterfarg, Ohio in the days leading up to Tuesday's Democratic primary. Jorgenson-Martinez defended the methodology of the poll, "It is perfectly legitimate. After all these types of anecdotal interviews form the basis for most of our news stories. And I believe the same is true with the Times."
When asked if there had been any attempt to verify whether the respondents were actually in fact Republicans, as they had claimed, Jorgenson-Martinez rather testily replied, "Look we're all trying to get out a story here. We've got deadlines and none of us wants to spend any more time in these podunk towns then we have. If they say they're Republicans that's good enough for us. Sure we might be guilty of a bit of lazy reporting, but don't you dare try to accuse us of bias."
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